

^ i 

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Class Sl_5-04- 

Book Gjg 

Copyright N°___ . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



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'^4/'^ 




Yours very truly, 

ELLIS J. GRINNELL 



What I Know About Farming 

A Record of Thirty-five Years of Practical 

Experience in Agriculture 

and Horticulture 




By 
ELLIS J. GRINNELL 



' * To conduct a farm in a proper manner requires a knowledge of 
more facts and principles than to conduct a bank successfully. ' 



Copyright 1913 

by 

E. J. GRINNELL 

Minneapolis, Minn. 



)CI.A34367 9 



6^' 
c^^ 



This book is dedicated to those women of America 
who, through their intelligent and indispensable co-oper- 
ation in the work on the farm, are so important a 
factor in the development of this ennobling industry. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 
Page 



Soil and Perseverance - - 21 

What Is Soil? - - - - 22 

The Essential Elements - - 23 
Swamp-Lands and Jack-Pine 

Lands ----- 24 



Natural Forestry an Indicator 
of Soil ----- 
Poor Soil Made Good Soil - 



Page 

25 
26 



Soil Fertility 

Soil Robbery 
Crop Rotation 
Poisoned Soils 
Seed Sowing 
Commercial Fertilizers 
Testing Soils 



CHAPTER II 

28 The Value of Manures 

29 Constant Cultivation - - - 

29 Lime a Necessity _ . . 

30 Manure Spreader - - _ 

31 President Taft's Prophecy - 

31 A Recent Instance of Scientific 
33 Farming - - - _ _ 

CHAPTER III 



Things to Know About Fertiliz- 
ers ------ 41 

Manures ----- 41 

Analysis of Manure - - - 42 

Fresh Manure - - - - 43 

Rotted Manure - - - - 43 

Poultry Manure - - - - 43 



The Value of Lime as a Fer- 
tilizer - - - - . 
Soil Preparation - - - - 
Conservation of Soil Fertility - 
Data from Experiment Stations 
Making Straw Pay - - _ 



CHAPTER IV 
The Business Farmer - - - 47 Labor-Saving Tools and Meth- 
Country Life Commissions - 48 ods ---___ 

Economical Farm Management 48 Keep Farm Accounts - - - 



Own Your Farm 

Time Is Money - 

Three Classes of Farmers 

Organization 



Farm Buildings - 

House Plans 

Cellar and Cistern 

Stone Construction 

Sanitation and Beauty 

Barn Buildings - 

Stone Barns 

Good Ventilation 

Sheep Barns 

Machine Shed 

Corn Crib and Ice House 



CHAPTER V 

53 Give the Children Pleasant Mem- 

53 ories ------ 

54 Inspire Your Boys and Girls 

55 A Fresh Air Outing - - - 

CHAPTER VI 



60 
61 
62 
63 
63 
64 
65 
65 
67 
67 
68 



How to Build a Silo - - - 
Capacity and Dimensions of 

Silo ------ 

Cost of Filling a Silo - - - 
How to Protect Buildings from 

Lightning - - - _ - 
The Farm Water System - 
System of Hog Fencing 
Fence Building - - - - 
Concrete Walks - - - _ 



33 
34 
36 
37 
38 

39 



43 
44 
45 
45 
46 



49 

50 



56 
57 
59 



70 

74 

75 

75 
76 
77 
77 
78 



CONTENTS— Contmu^c^ 



CHAPTER VII 
Page 



Pasture and Meadow - - - 

Clover and Cow Peas - - - 

Stock in Pasture - - - - 

Meadows . - - - - 

An Eastern Meadow - - - 

Nurse Crops of Grain - - - 

Seeding to Clover with Spring 

Grains - - - - - 

Cutting Clover - - - - 

Cutting Timothy . - - 



The Vegetable Garden 

Begin Small - - - - - 

House Planting in ^Nlarch - 
Manures or Fertilizers 

The Cold Frame - - - - 

Hot Be'ds - - - - - 

Potatoes - - - - - 

How to Plant - - - - 

Seed Potatoes Should Be Whole 

Potato Culture - - - - 

Potato Diseases - - - - 

Marketing - - - - - 

Rhubarb . _ _ - - 

Radishes - - - - - 

Lettuce _ _ - - - 

Endives . - - - - 



Onions ------ 98 



Spinach 
Asparagus 



79 Hay Heating - - - - 

80 Manure Spreaders - - - 

81 How to Raise Alfalfa - 

81 The Best Kinds of Soil 

82 Getting the Soil Ready 
82 The Weed Question - 

Selection of Seed . - - 

Planting the Seed _ . - 
When to Cut Alfalfa - 
The Question of Inoculation 

CHAPTER VIII 

89 Tomatoes - - - - - 

- 89 Beets ------ 

Sweet Corn ----- 

Garden Peas - - - - 

Beans ------ 

Lima Beans _ - - . 

Cucumbers - - - - - 

Cabbage - - - - - 

Pumpkins - - _ - - 
Egg Plant - - - - - 

Melons ------ 

Celery ------ 

Storing Celery - - - - 

Miscellaneous - - - . 

Wintering of Vegetables in Cold 

Climates - - - - - 

Vegetable Pests - - - - 

Cutworm - - - - - 



Page 
84 



83 
83 
84 



90 
90 
91 
92 

92 
93 
94 
95 
95 
96 
96 
97 
97 
98 



Corn and Small Grains 

Corn Planting - - - 

Cultivation - - - - 
Cultivating Tools 

Field Corn - - - - 

Fodder Corn . - - 

A Home-Made Fodder Cutter 

Seed Corn - - - - 

Good Seed - - - - 

Getting Good Seed - 

Buying Seed . _ - 

Testing Seed - _ - 

Corn Smut - - - - 
The Corn Worms 

Why Does Popcorn Pop? - 
The Oat Field - 
Rye in Minnesota 



85 
86 
86 
87 
87 
87 
87 



101 
103 
104 
104 
105 
106 
107 
107 
108 
109 
109 
110 
111 
112 

113 
114 
114 



- 98 

- 99 

CHAPTER IX 

- 116 Cow Peas ----- 126 

- 116 Cow Peas Sown for Live Stock 126 

- 117 Growing Flax - . . - 127 

- 118 Millet ------ 128 

- 118 Buckwheat ----- 129 

- 119 Barley ------ 129 

- 119 Speltz ------ 130 

- 120 Sorghum Raising - - - 130 

- 121 Wheat Raising - - - - 131 

- 121 Rust Resistance - - - - 132 

- 121 Seed Grain ----- 133 

- 122 The Soil ----- 135 

- 123 Seeding to Winter Grain - - 135 

- 123 The Hessian Fly - - - - 136 

- 124 Miscellaneous - - - - 136 

- 124 Quack Grass .''-_. 137 

- 125 



CONTENTS— Contmued 



CHAPTER X 



Page 

Small Fruit Raising - - - 138 

Raspberries ----- 138 

Care the First Summer - - 139 
Another Method of Planting, 

etc. ------ 140 

Heeling in - - - - - 141 

Blackberries - - _ - 141 

Strawberry Culture - - - 142 

Varieties ----- 142 

Planting and Culture - - - 143 



Old Strawberry Beds - - - 
Strawberries the Second Season 
Currants and Gooseberries - 
Protect from Worms - - - 
Grapes ------ 

Pruning Grapes - - - - 

Bagging Grapes - - - - 

Cutting and Layering Grapes - 
Insecticides - - - - - 



Page 
144 
145 
146 
147 
148 
149 
149 
149 
150 



CHAPTER XI 



The Orchard - - - - 153 

Sites and Soils - - - - 154 

Methods of Planting - - - 154 

Dynamite in Orchard Planting - 155 

Varieties ----- 156 

Distance Apart - - - - 156 

Transplanting - - - - 157 

Propagation - - _ _ 157 

Cultivation ----- 158 

Mulching for too Early Bloom - 158 

Cover Crops - - _ - 159 

Pruning Trees - - - - 159 

General Directions - - - 160 

Apple, Pear, Cherry, Quince - 160 

Peaches ----- 161 

Plums ------ 162 

Pruning Tools - - - - 162 



Making Over Old Orchards - 162 

How to Top Graft - - - 163 

Subsequent Treatment - - 164 

Danger from Early Frosts - - 165 

Insect Pests and Diseases - - 166 

San Jose Scale - - - - 166 

Spray Formulas - - - - 167 

Other Remedies and Preventior* 168 

Blight in Pear and Apple Trccf 169 

How to Prune - - - 170 

Sun Scald - - - - - 170 

Summary ----- 170 

Hedge for Fruit Orchard - - 171 
Directions for Planting in the 

Hedge ----- 172 
A Golden Willow Hedge for a 

Fruit Garden - - - - 173 



CHAPTER XII 



Trees and Farm Forestry - 

Who Plants a Tree (Poem) 
Farm Forestry - - - 
Value of Tree Planting 
Methods of Tree Planting - 
The Elm Tree - - - 



Evergreens - - - - 

Varieties - - - . 
When to Transplant and How 
Seedling Evergreens - 
Plant Away from Windows 
Sweep up the Snow - 
Using Tackles - _ _ 



176 


Planting for Shade and Ornament 


: 180 


176 


Mr. Emman's Grove - - - 


181 


177 


Rapidity of Growth of Trees - 


182 


178 


Trees of the Northwest - 


182 


179 


The Care of a Woodlot 


183 


180 

\pt: 


Trees, Planting of Shrubbery - 
ER XIII 


186 


188 


To Save Split Trees - - - 


192 


189 


Pruning Trees and Hedges 


192 


189 


Hedges ----- 


193 


190 


Watering Trees - - - - 


195 


191 


Miscellaneous Notes - - - 


195 


191 


The Tree Borer - - - - 


196 


192 


Tree Stories - - _ . 


197 



COlSiTENTS— Continued 



CHAPTER XIV 



The Flower Garden - 

Soil Preparation - - - 
Transplanting and Cultivating 
Watering - - - - 
Seed Sowing . - - 

In-Door Seed Sowing - 
House Plants - - - 
Alphabetical List of Varieties 
Hard and Soft Wood Cuttings 
Cutting - - - - 

Striking the Cutting - 
Rose Culture - - - 
Pruning Roses - - - 
Winter Protection 
Rose Hedges - - - 



Page 

- 198 When to Plant - 

- 198 Growing Rose Cuttings 

- 198 Planting Climbers 

- 199 Tea Roses - - - 

- 199 Rose Pests - 

- 199 Rose Jar - 

- 200 The Greenhouse - 

- 200 The Sash Greenhouse - 

- 206 Comparative Costs 

- 207 The Roof Pitch - 

- 207 The Direction of the Sun 

- 208 The Commonest Blunders 

- 209 The Question of Width 

- 209 Heating the Greenhouse 

- 211 Figuring the Heating - 



CHAPTER XV 



Bees ----"" 

The Essentials - - - - 
Protect the Hives 

Shipping Bees - - - - 

Summary for General Spring 

Treatment - - - - 

Safe Wintering - - - - 

Arranging Hives - - - 



Pr.ge 

■ 211 

- 211 
• 212 

- 212 

- 213 

- 214 

- 214 

- 215 

- 215 

- 216 

- 216 

- 216 

- 217 

- 217 

- 218 



219 


Bees in a Cave - - - 


- 224 


219 


Uniting Stock . . _ 


- 224 


220 


Feeding the Bees 


- 225 


220 


Shipping Bees and Honey - 


- 225 




Bee Pests and Diseases 


- 226 


221 


Beeswax _ _ . _ 


- 226 


222 


Bee Stings - - - - 


- 227 


223 


The Life of the Bee - 


- 228 



CHAPTER XVI 



Poultry 

Poem— The Hens Lay Every 

Day ------ 

Begin with Economy - 
Building the Poultry House 
Care of the Interior - 
Poultry Houses— Octagon Shape 
Another Way to Build the Hen 

House - - ■ " " 
Chicken House No. 3 - 
Chicken House No. 4 - 
Chicken House No. 5 - 
Chicken House No. 6 - 
A St. Paul, Minn., Chicken House 
A Crookston, Minn., Chicken 

House _ - - - - 
House No. 9 - - - - 
Ventilation - - - - - 
The Scratching Room 
A Cloth Pocket Hen's Nest 
Laying and Setting - - - 



233 


Varieties 


- 


- 245 




Good Winter Layers 


_ 


- 246 


233 


Setting Hens 


- 


- 247 


234 


The Incubator Chick( 


en 


- 248 


235 


The Hen-hatched Ch 


ick 


- 249 


235 


The Feeding of Poultry 


- 251 


237 


Crop Rotation for Poultry 


- 252 




The Warm Mash 


- 


- 253 


237 


Various Methods of 


Feeding 


- 253 


238 


Value of Clover and 


Alfalfa 


- 254 


239 


Selling Poultry at a 


Loss - 


- 255 


239 


Geese - - - 


- 


- 255 


240 


Ducks - 


- 


- 257 


240 


Turkeys 


- 


- 258 




Squab Raising 


- 


- 260 


240 


Diseases of Fowls 


- 


- 261 


241 


Nighthawks - 


- 


- 266 


242 


General Helps 


- 


- 267 


243 


Storing Eggs 


- 


- 268 


244 


Uses of Eggs 


- 


- 268 


245 


Summary 


- 


- 269 



Stock Breeding - 

Native Cattle 
Short Horn Cattle 



CONTENTS— Confmuet/ 

CHAPTER XVII 

Page 

- 270 Other Types 

- 271 Beef Cattle for Market 

- 271 



Page 

■ 273 

■ 274 



CHAPTER XVIII 



Dairying _ . . 

Selection and Breeding 
Care and Feed - 
Milking _ _ _ 

Care of Milk 
Butter Making - 



275 
275 
275 
276 
276 
276 



Silo and Silage - - - - 278 

Construction of the Silo - - 278 

Cost of Silo - - - - 278 

The Cow for Small Farm or 

Citj- ------ 279 

Dairy Notes ----- 279 



Winter Rations for Milch Cows 277 



CHAPTER XIX 



Horse Department - - - 281 
Horse Breeding and Horse Lov- 
ers - - - - - - 281 

The Percheron-Norman - - 281 

The American Trotter - - 282 

The Father of Trotters - - 282 

Prominent Sons of Messenger - 283 

Mambrino's Descendants - - 283 
Descendants of Bishop's Ham- 

bletonian ----- 284 

Descendants of Other Sons of 

^Messenger - - - _ 284 



History of Trotting Perform- 
ances ----- 284 
Arabian Horses - - - - 286 
Stock Needed on the Farm - 286 
The General Purpose Horse - 287 
Raising and Breaking Colts - 287 
Bitting the Colt and Training to 

Harness ----- 288 

Diseases and Remedies - - 288 

How Medicines are Applied - 288 

To Protect Horses from Flies - 292 

To Thicken the Mane and Tail 292 



Frosts and Sprays 

Facts About Frosts - - - 293 

What Is Frost? - - - - 293 

Location ----- 293 

Factors that Influence Frosts - 293 

Protection Against Frosts - - 294 

Winter Protection for Shrubbery 294 

Frost and Temperature Table - 295 



CHAPTER XX 
- 293 



After Frosts. 

Spray Calendar and Formulas - 297 

Sprays for Vegetables - - 297 

Sprays for Small Fruits - - 298 

Sprays for Orchard - - - 299 

Sprays for Forestry - - - 301 

Formulas — Fungicide - - - 301 

Formulas — Insecticides - - 302 



CHAPTER XXI 



The Woman on the Farm - - 304 

The Mission of the Farmer's 

Wife ----- 304 

Will Educate the Children - - 304 

Mrs. Burns' Outline - - - 305 

A Practical Farmer's Wife - 305 

Danish Law as to Loans - - 306 



Observe Economy -. - - 306 

Have a Soil Survey - - - 306 

Sanitarj' Surroundings - - 307 

Labor-Saving ^Methods - - 307 

Recreation ----- 309 

The Most Valuable Crop - - 309 



CO'NTE^TS— Continued 



CHAPTER XXII 



Early-Day Farming in the East 

Farming Methods . - - 
Habits and Diet - - - - 
Some of the Successful Farmers 
Early Farm Machinery 
Squatters ----- 



Page 
312 
312 
313 
314 
315 
316 



Page 

Making Maple Syrup and Sugar 317 

Laying in Stores for the Future 317 

Wild Fruit and Game - - - 318 

Two Great Inventors - - - 318 
The American Farmer of the 

20th Century - - - - 319 



CHAPTER XXIII 



Miscellaneous - - - - 321 

Miscellaneous Hints - - - 321 

Poison Ivy or Oak - - - 322 

The Farm Walk and Driveway 322 

Greens - _ - - _ 323 

Trees and Vines - - - 

Curing Pork or Bacon - - 324 



Pickle for Pork - 

Dried Beef - 

Smokehouse 

For Dyspeptics - 

A Minnesota Orchard 



- 324 

- 324 

- 325 

- 325 

- 326 



323 A New York Thanksgiving at 
the Farm House - - - 



327 



List of Illustrations 



The Author -----___ Frontispiece '- 
An Ideal Farm House -------- (3i 

Main Stock Farm, State Experimental Farm, Minnesota - - 65 "^ 
A Model Sheep Barn, State Experimental Farm, Minnesota - 73 «/ 

Great Stand of Wheat - - - - - - - -129/' 

Strawberry-Raspberry -------- j^j (/' 

Strawberry Bed on a City Lot ----___ i^^ </ 

A Prolific Growth of Grapes ------- 1491/ 

A Young Orchard on Sandy Soil -_---_ y6\ v 

Starting a Park on a Sand Bar ------ 177^ 

Ornamental Shade Trees on Gravelly Ground - - - - 1811/ 

Shade Trees Grown in Three Years ----- 185* 

Group of Evergreens --------- 189 v 

Golden Willow Hedge -----___ 193^ 

A Great Flower Bed --------- 201 

Bees in Glass Case --------- 225 

The Safety Pocket Hen's Nest ------- 237 

Plan for a Model Hen House ------ 241^ 

Orange Blossom of Fairview — First Prize Cow _ - - 270 ^ 

Duke of Airdrie Bull ---_--_. 271^ 

A Pair of Heavy Weight Holstein Oxen ----- 272 

Tenth Duchess of Geneva — 5 -year-old Cow - - - - 273^' 

Pair of Mammoth Short Horn Oxen ------ 2741 

First Duchess of Oneida — 23^-year-old Heifer - - - 275/ 

Sadie Vale Concordia — World's Champion Butter Cow - - 2,'j'j \j 

Lady Fragrance — Pure Bred Short Horn - _ _ _ 279 s/ 

Black Percheron Draft Horse ------- 281 ^' 

French Coach Stallion -------- 283 V 

Dan Patch — Pacer --------- 285 t^' 

Lou Dillon — Trotting Queen ------- 287 ^ 

Wm. AL Rysdyk's Hambletonian ------ 289 ' 

A ^^'eIl Mated Team ___--- -'_ 291 

Mrs. John A. Widtsoe — Congress of Farm Women - - - ^q- v 

Mrs. Amy B. Cooper — Congress of Farm Women - - 307 v/ 

Mrs. Chas. A. Lory — Congress of Farm W^omen - - - 309 \A 

Mrs. Eleanor L. Burns — Congress of Farm Women - - 311 "^ 



Preface 

This book is the outgrowth, as the title declares, of forty years of a 
mature experience of the life of the all-around farmer. I was born on a 
Central New York farm, grew to manhood on the same farm, and man- 
aged it for twenty-five years thereafter. Then circumstances sent me to 
other parts of the United States to continue along the same lines of agri- 
cultural and horticultural work. In those forty years, however, the out- 
look of farming in this country has greatly changed. Realizing this fully, 
from my wide acquaintance with the various farming sections of the 
nation. I have written these pages, in the hope that I may aid the young 
farmers of the day by presenting methods of work which are the results 
of a practical adjustment to each other of the old and new ways of 
farming. Verv little is set down in the work which has not had the test 
of my own labors in one field or another. For such few pages as are 
gleaned from the practice of other farmers I have aimed to give credit 
where due. Acknowledgements are also made to the valuable agricultural 
papers of the country for suggestions in their columns which corroborated 
my own field work. Especially is credit given to Farm. Stock and Home, 
the Northwestern Agriculturist, The Farmer and the Canadian Thresher- 
man. 

During the past few years there has been a loud call of "back to 
the land." Today the business of farming and horticulture is made to 
appear more attractive than ever before by the alluring advertising litera- 
ture which is issued in such profusion by the numerous land companies 
and colonizing agencies in all sections of the country. To the unini- 
tiated and to those who have had limited experience in agricultural pur- 
suits I wish to sound a note of warning : Farming is a serious business. 
It requires just as much brains to be a successful farmer as it does to be 
a successful merchant or manufacturer, for it is really a combination of 
both of these. It requires a certain amount of capital to start even a small 
farm, and in this respect too. it is not so very different from other legit- 
imate lines of business. I trust that before embarking in the business of 
farming my readers will first count the cost. Farming is a good business. 
It is a useful, a necessary and a dignified occupation, upon which practi- 
cally all other lines of industry depend. In one way or another, the pros- 
perity of the whole country is regulated by the activities of the farmer. 



Pre fa ce — Continued 

It is hardly possible to learn all about a subject from books, no mat- 
ter how well they may be written. Practical experience is necessary to 
round out one's education, and my advice to the beginner in any of the 
various departments touched upon in this book, is to begin slowly. If 
you are destined to become a farmer, study the business from every possi- 
ble angle. Keep posted by reading agricultural reports ; get acquainted 
with your prosperous neighbors, and study their ways of doing things. 
Don't lose an opportunity to attend county and state fairs. Co-operate 
with those who are in the same line of business as yourself ; attend local 
grange meetings, and in every possible way help with your voice and bes't 
efforts to dignify and benefit your chosen calling, for in this, as in other 
lines of occupation, what is for the best interests of your neighbors is also 
best for you. 



CHAPTER I 

Soil and Perseverance 

A MAN who had been a practical farmer for over fifty years in 
the west, was asked one day what his methods of farming 
had been that he had been so successful. Being a man of few 
words, he replied, "My methods? I didn't have any to begin 
with. I just found 160 acres of good rich soil that Uncle Sam gave 
me — and then — well, the rest was mostly what grit I put into it." 

My farmer friend was not so far out of the way. In fact, if he 
had put "grit" the first of his two requisites, and the soil second, he 
would not have made any mistake. No man is fit for a successful 
farmer unless he has enough sand in his make-up to outweigh what 
he may find on his land. Yet, while the man behind the plow is the 
first factor in good farming, the character of the soil decides the 
market value of the farm. It is possible to buy poor virgin soil, and, 
by a continual outlay of time and money, make it over into good 
farming land. The time is coming when this kind of transformation 
will be a necessity to the world. But it is not yet so near that this 
book is written especially for the needs of such restorative agri- 
culture. 

It is assumed that the farmer who reads these chapters has al- 
ready some reasonably good acreage, or that he plans to possess such 
acreage soon. Granted that, how can he make the most out of his 
farm, large or small? How can be get big crops with the least cost 
to himself — and to the land? In other words, how can he keep his 
land fertile? 

These, and kindred questions, must be answered by the practical 
farmers of today in order to make farming pay dividends. The big 
farms and tracts of land are fast being cut up into smaller ones to 
meet the demands of a rapidly growing population. This means that 
every square foot of the smaller farm must be brought up to a profit- 
able fertility, as is now the case in the old country, and this involves a 
systematic, if not a thoroughly scientific, rotation of crops, which will 
insure large yield, while conserving, if not increasing, the fertility 
of the soil. 

Every farmer of today must realize the enormous waste that goes 
on where only one crop is raised year after year, and he appreciates 
the fact that diversified farming is the logical solution, of the farm 
conservation problem. Here every part of the operation and growth 
is dependent upon every other part. Fertilizers from the barns, sta- 
bles and stockyards go to the fields and pastures, and the crops, in 
the shape of feed, go back again to the barns, stables, stockyards like 
an endless chain. Where before there were only one or one and 
half tons of hay to the acre, under these conditions three tons can 



22 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

be produced ; where before 35 or 40 bushels of corn were raised, now 
90 to 100 bushels can be grown ; and so it is with wheat, formerly 
12 or 15 bushels, now on well conducted farms 30 bushels can be 
raised. The farmer's soil, not unlike his animals, must be cared for 
and fed to produce the best and most lasting results. No one would 
expect to get a good rich milk from a starved cow. Why then should 
he attempt to farm on starved land? 

Discouragements will come and harvests will be bad. The best 
soil "goes back" on a man in some years. But through ups and 
downs, the farmer, whether born a farmer or made a farmer by force 
of circumstances, will learn that fertility depends upon certain ma- 
terials in his soil, and that thorough, increasing cultivation is just 
as much needed that good soil may remain fertile, as to give fertility 
to barren lands. 

What Is Soil? 

The soil contains, in varying quantities, those materials which 
are necessary for plant growth. By careful handling we may change 
the relative proportion of those materials. By keeping the soil in such 
a state, through proper and timely cultivation, that heat, frost, air and 
water can have the best chance to work upon it, to disintegrate the 
particles and make the important ingredients available, and to keep 
it sanitary so that the roots of the growing plant lying in this mass 
of well kept matter called soil, may have the best possible environ- 
ment, the best soil will remain best and the poor soil will gradually 
grow better. 

This brings us to the question of the formation, properties and 
constituents of soils. Briefly, soil is that part of the earth's crust in 
which plants are able to grow. It was originally formed from the 
rocks, by disintegration and erosion. To these particles have been 
added from time to time, more or less animal and vegetable matter, 
called humus. These various deposits when carried to new localities 
by water, change their character. Examples of this are the valley of 
the Nile River in Egypt, and our own Mississippi valley. These val- 
leys have benefited by the large amount of humus which they received 
at the expense of the other and higher regions. 

Soils possess both physical and chemical properties. Among 
the most important physical properties of the soil are : The size and 
form of the soil particles; their relation to heat, cold, air and water; 
their weight and their color, order, etc. 

These properties have considerable bearing in determining what 
use to make of a certain soil. The size of the particles determines 
the class of soil ; thus clay is composed of the finest particles, and de- 
rives the quality of slow percolation of water from this condition. 
Silt ranks next in fineness and then comes sand. Each of the above 
named soils is particularly adapted to some class of crops and poor 
results are usually obtained by attempting to grow other groups of 
crops on them. The best potato soil, for instance, contains a very 
large proportion of sand, corn soil possesses about an equal propor- 
tion of sand, silt and clay, while the best gr^ss and grain soil has a 



SOIL AND PERSEVERANCE 23 

preponderance of silt. A wheat soil, however, should be finer than 
for other small grains, so a soil containing- a larger proportion of 
clay can be used. 

The Essential Elements. 

Water in its relation to the soil is far and away the most import- 
ant of the elements. Of course the alternate action of heat and cold 
upon the earth's crust in disintegrating it cannot be underrated, 
neither can the action of frost or air be left out. But without water 
there would be little need of any of the others so far as vegetation 
goes. Water may be found in the soil as bottom water — the dis- 
tance of this from the surface may be told generally by the depths 
of wells of the community — and as capillary water, or that water 
held by capillary attraction between the particles of the soil. This is 
an important source of water supply to plants and may be conserved 
during dry weather by intelligent cultivation and mulching. 

On the other hand water may be lost to the soil, (1) by percola- 
tion — the downward tendency of water mostly in sandy soils. This 
is bad because the plant food is carried too far down to do the plants 
any good. In loose soils this may be remedied by the addition of 
humus. (2) By evaporation, or the loss of water by the action of 
the air. This can be prevented largely by mulching and cultivating. 
(3) By transpiration, or loss of water by evaporation through the 
leaves of the plants. This loss cannot be prevented and the hot dry 
winds often cause the plants to wilt because transpiration takes place 
so rapidly. 

Micro-organisms have been an important factor in the produc- 
tion of soils. Their action upon the soil is both physical and chem- 
ical. While there are between 65 and 70 elements in the soil, only 
about 12 are known to be essential to plant and animal life, three 
particularly necessary. These are nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 
potash. 

Nitrogen is a constituent of chlorophyll, the green coloring mat- 
ter of plants, and when there is a dearth of it only a limited amount 
of chlorophyll can be produced. If nitrogen is absent from the soil, 
plants do not make any appreciable growth ; the leaves do not de- 
velop, and, as the leaves are the stomachs of a plant, the whole or- 
ganism suffers. Nitrogen is particularly necessary during the early 
part of the plant's growth; for example, wheat uses about 85% of 
its nitrogen before the plant heads out at all. 

Those plants with rich green, well developed leaves, are not in 
need of nitrogen. Too much available nitrogen causes the plant to 
direct its energy to wood-making and not to the production of fruit 
and seeds. Plants are also able to take nitrogen from the air. The 
most common example of this is the clover family, which extracts 
nitrogen from the air and deposits it in nodules at the roots of the 
plants. Raising clover is one of the best ways of adding nitrogen 
to a soil. 

Phosphoric acid is also very essential during the early part of 
the plant's growth. In the case of the wheat plant, it has been 



24 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

shown that 80% of all phosphorous used is taken up during the first 
half of its growth. Light-weight grain results from an imperfect 
phosphorous supply. 

Like the other two essential elements, potassium or potash is 
needed in the early stages of plant growth. It goes into the building 
of fibers, woods, etc. In a grain crop it is present in leaves and straw. 
Wood ashes are rich in potash. 

Another element which is very important and by some considered 
as essential as the first three is lime. A soil lacking in this element 
grows plants lacking in hardiness. Grain crops do not remove very 
much lime while clovers take a great deal. Lime not only acts upon 
the soil chemically and combines with other elements to make them 
available as plant food, but improves the soil physically, if, of course, 
it is not present in too large quantities. 

A rocky or an arid soil with clay subsoil often has available 
large quantities of these elements and only needs irrigation and 
cultivation. 

All California needs to make it the garden of the United States 
is water. The same might be said of many other localities now await- 
ing national irrigation projects. On the other hand, a soil with an 
abundance of moisture may become so water-tight that the action 
of the atmosphere is hindered and thus the greatest factor in the 
health of the soil becomes an evil. Neither from stones nor muck- 
holes can a farmer make a living. Yet what shall he do with the 
rock or the swamp-land if he happens to possess them? 

Swamp-Land and Jack-Pine Lands. 

The rocky land at once suggests its own cure. The few farmers 
of New York now living who can remember how they built the stone 
walls that fenced ofif their acres two generations ago could tell us 
something on this point. But the value of the swamp-land is not 
yet so well understood as it will be when state drainage has re- 
claimed the thousands of acres still left for the coming settlers to 
beautify and make productive by intelligent agriculture. It is espe- 
cially rich in humus, as a rule, having received for ages the wash- 
ings of the surrounding lands. And where the proper scientific use 
has been made of the little swampy corner of the farm home, it has 
been able to return the interest on the money invested in its drainage 
sometimes many fold. The same may be said of the jack-pine lands 
and of some ordinary pine lands. Instead of leaving the lands behind 
him to move on further west, the young man of small means would 
do better to try his skill at continuous yields of clover upon the bet- 
ter class of jack-pine lands. The department of agriculture has a 
bulletin based on the investigations of one of the department's work- 
ers in the jack-pine lands of Michigan. There clover has been 
grown for seed with yields of from 2 to 6 bushels an acre, at the 
same time greatly benefiting the soil. But the intending farmer is 
cautioned not to expect his farm to reach a high state of cultivation 
for at least three or five years. After that he can carry on such di- 
versified farming as the locality permits. 



SOIL AND PERSEVERANCE 25 

The requisites to success on these lands are: 

First. — Summer fallowing or plowing all vegetation under dur- 
ing the summer. The first plowing should not be deeper than about 
4 inches. The next plowing not more than 6 inches. 

Second. — Leave a natural windbreak of trees and shrubs along 
the north and west borders of each field. 

Third. — Make fields narrow north and south, long east and 

west. 

Fourth. — After seeding roll thoroughly to bring up the soil 
water. 

Fifth. — Harrow with a spike-tooth harrow to give a loose top 
soil. This prevents surface evaporation. A rough surface has also 
been proven to reduce the force of the wind next to the soil to at 
least half the velocity it has when blowing over a smooth surface. 
This method is simply mentioned here to show what may be done 
with land generally supposed to be worthless for agricultural uses ; 
and is a method recommended by one of the leading professors of 
an agricultural college in a state where jack-pine lands are found in 
sufficient quantity to check ordinary farming methods and scientific 
farming is needed to get results. Purchasers of jack-pine lands, how- 
ever, should be sure that the sandy surface does not also mean a 
sandy sub-soil, which will not retain fertility. If there are any set- 
tlers near where you are planning to buy, look at their clearing to 
see what crops can be grown. Never buy jack-pine or swamp land 
without seeing the land first. Then make sure that you will get the 
land you are bargaining for. Gravelly land has often excellent soil, 
and if the price is low enough, will pay for the time spent in removing 
stones. Do not buy swamp lands so deep under water and muck 
that they will need thousands of dollars of drainage work before their 
real soil value can be developed. Lands like all of these are found 
in the northern portions of Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota, some- 
times in almost the same locality as land with cheap yet profitable 
possibilities in it. Look before you leap. 

Natural Forestry An Indicator of Soil. 

In selecting locations for farming one can usually tell the value of 
the soil by noting the kind and condition of the timber that grows 
thereon. Of course this method of judging lands can not be used on 
prairies where no trees are found. 

If the trees in a certain locality are short in trunk or body, small 
in diameter and have a thick head with small limbs the subsoil is 
generally porous or leechy, having a mixture of sand and gravel. The 
natural surface soil will contain only a small percent of foods for 
agricultural uses, if cleared. These will soon be exhausted if cropped. 
However, many soils of this kind have been bought up to a paying 
basis by applying large quantities of barnyard manure and seeding 
to clover or alfalfa. Fodder corn is grown and fed to the cattle so 
that it all goes back to the land. 



26 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

On the other hand if the trees are tall and large in diameter with- 
out the scrawny appearance that characterizes light soil vegetation 
the soil is without doubt rich in food stufifs and the subsoil is deep. 

The subsoil is the essential thing to look for because it is really 
the reservoir for retaining the water that leeches from the surface 
soils. If the subsoil has plenty of moisture in it the vegetation will 
thrive even in a severe drouth, but if the water content is exhausted 
during dry weather there is little chance that vegetation will survive. 

An example of this was the spring of 1911 — The season before 
had been very dry so that little if any moisture was left in the soil 
over winter. I had some nursery stock to set out in the spring and I 
found that the subsoil contained no moisture. After putting in the 
stuff I hauled water and fijled up the subsoil to overflowing. I had 
no trouble with these trees. 

A heavy clay subsoil is the only subsoil that will retain a large 
deposit of moisture for a long drouth. 

Poor Soil Made Good Soil. 

Yet, as to poor soil, roughly speaking, there is comparatively 
so little poor soil in this country that I believe we can yet rival 
Japan in intensive farming; and there it is stated that the population 
averages 5,000 to the acre. It is poor farming that is the matter with 
us. We leave the plant food all sealed away in the soil's depths, 
and scratch over the surface to get results in the easiest way. Cul- 
tivate, cultivate, cultivate, and then some more ! Work the earth 
about your crops, where you think your poorest soil is, persistently 
and faithfully twice a week during the season of growth, and you 
will find your crop will mature early enough to enable you to grow 
other crops. Even where you think there are no possibilities, and so 
pass on to some other locality, another and more courageous man — 
perhaps the Swiss farmer from the mountain slopes of Europe — will 
come along, take the land you rejected, and by using his brains, his 
courage and his capacity for hard work, develop commercial returns 
and a good living in a few years. 

A good farmer must know what the soil of his farm possesses of 
plant value and what it lacks. He must be able to tell when it needs 
to be helped along, and what is most likely to help it. He ought 
also to know what cereals and vegetables he can grow in his own 
latitude, and what ones it would be useless to plant. He must know 
how to feed and care for his different stock when well, and how to 
avoid animal diseases or to fight them when they come. He must 
know equally as much about plant diseases and insect pests. And 
he must never think he knows it all, for there is nothing that gives 
more surprises than farming does. Nature has a way of upsetting 
all our calculations every now and then. The only thing to do is 
to keep on working to get the biggest results with the smallest pos- 
sible loss of time, labor and money, and then not be discouraged if, 
occasionally, we should only clear expenses and make a year's living 
for the family. Scientific farming pays in the long run, and in the 



SOIL AND PERSEVERANCE 27 

meantime, the farmer is independent of most of the worries that dog 
the life of the business man of the city. 

Therefore, don't think if you expect to make the most out of your 
soil today, that book-farming has no value. It stands to reason that 
the man who gives his time to the study of soils — as do the men of 
our agricultural colleges — must know more about the kind of soil 
needed for growth in any locality than does the young fellow who 
has only depended on the seasons and the weather. The practical 
farmer and the scientific farmer both need each other, and whether 
a man occupies his own or another's farm to begin with, his success 
depends upon his not making too many mistakes at first. Take a 
good farm paper, get an analysis of your own farm soil, find out 
what it lacks of fertility's elements, and then put the lack in by your 
own grit and intelligence. 



CHAPTER II 

Soil Fertility 

HOW to increase fertility is becoming more and more the prob- 
lem of farming. The rapid increase of population in the past 
half century of this country has not only sent more settlers 
to the virgin and rich soils of the middle west and far west, 
but it has packed cities full of the laboring and business workers. 
The demand for farm products now begins to exceed the supply just 
at the critical point when an overworked soil appears to refuse to 
yield the big crops of the past 

There is no cause for worry about this. The land is still with us, 
with the same possibilities that it has always had. We must treat 
it better, give it our best intelligence in the way of farming, and then 
recognize that intelligence by fostering the business of the farmer. 
Just as we encourage manufacturers to come to our cities, so must 
our states offer help to the incoming settlers by liberal land laws, 
protection from land sharks and boomers of the wrong stripe and, 
above all, a persistent and economical teaching of the best agricultural 
methods adapted to the different sections of each state. The easiest 
way of farming has been exploited to a dangerous success, which 
is now leaving us with abandoned farms in the east, and tired-out 
bonanza farms in the west. But let us accept the alternative of the 
necessary rebuilding and retrieving of land that this puts upon the 
future of farming. With firm faith in the American spirit of energy 
and resources, let us get to work at farming in the right way. For 
the American farmer will come to his own in this century as he never 
has done before. Farming, for nearly a hundred years, has been 
carried on by dumping manure into ravines or rivers, or leaving it in 
heaps until its value is gone and the substance is ruined by fire-fang; 
in burning the straw ; in burning over pasture, and in selling all the 
grain raised and putting nothing into live stock. 

The whole subject of soil exhaustion, therefore, from this and 
other causes, becomes one of vital importance to the farmer every- 
where. The fertility, and therefore the market value of land, depends 
upon its available supply of plant food. Nature has put into the 
soil of the great Northwest large stores of plant food. This food 
had been accumulating for thousands of years before the pioneer 
came, until the prairie sod had become very rich and overflowing 
with plant food. Yet the Minnesota farmer will tell you today that 
it would take at least three crops of wheat, as now raised, to make, 
or equal, one raised when the prairie sod was first plowed. This state 
has come about by what may justly be called wholesale soil robbery. 

The great problem now with many of our farmers seems to be 
how to manage their farms so as to make the soil, or plant food re- 



S O I L F E R T I L I T Y 29 

maining therein, sufficiently available to produce a large crop yield. 
Whatever kind of a fertilizer the soil may need, the crop by its 
quality is the only sure indicator of that need. 

Soil Robbery. 

Prof. J. J. Jefiferson, of Michigan, says that to produce 40 bushels 
of wheat to the acre, with the straw removed from the field, takes 
food stuff from the land as follows: 35 pounds of potash, 28 pounds 
of phosphorous acid, and 68 pounds of nitrogen. To produce 40 
bushels of oats per acre, with the straw removed, requires 40 pounds 
of potash, 15 pounds of phosphorous acid, and 37 pounds of nitrogen. 
To produce 60 bushels of corn, 70 pounds to the bushel of ears, with 
the stalks removed, it requires 48 pounds of potash, 42 pounds of 
phosphorous acid and 72 pounds of nitrogen. This being true, it is 
easy to determine the cause of the shrinkage of our crops from 40 
bushels of wheat per acre to 12 bushels per acre, and a verv poor 
grade of wheat at that. 

This kind of soil robbery has been going on for 40 or 50 years, 
while the farmer has burned, and in many cases still continues to 
burn the straw stacks which contain phosphorous, potash and nitro- 
gen and much other plant food : raising very little clover — the great 
soil repairer. To restore this immense loss of plant food again to the 
land is the great problem for the farmer to solve. This can be done 
in part, or in whole, by careful conservation of all the resources from 
the land, by rotation of crops, and by choice of crops. 

Burn no more straw stacks, keep more stock, keep them well 
bedded with straw and spread the manure over the land as much per 
acre as you can well plow under. The first year after this is done, 
the best crop for the land is corn, potatoes, or some root crop that 
requires cultivation. The next crop may be of some kind of grain 
seeded down for grass. Let the above land now remain one year 
in clover. Now for hay, or pasture it. The next spring spread 20 
or 25 loads of coarse stable manure per acre over it. Plow this under 
and plant it again, as before, to some root plant that requires cultiva- 
tion. Be sure to keep all weeds down. 

Crop Rotation. 

If you will continue this rotation of crops for a few years you 
will find that your land has been replenished with phosphorous, 
potash, nitrogen and all other plant foods, and it will not be neces- 
sary for the farmer to sow salt as a fertilizer, as is done in many 
of the eastern states 

The importance of changing seed grain from one kind of soil to 
another kind of soil cannot be emphasized too strongly. For very 
often grain that has grown on new land, will make the very best grain 
to sow on old and poorer soil, as the plump and heavier grain makes 
a better growth than seed that has been grown on old and lighter 
soil. It is always the good, clean, plump seed that secures the best 
crop. 

When sowing clover to be plowed under, use 8 to 10 quarts of 



30 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

the Mammoth or Pea Vine clover, and plow under when it begins 
to bloom. Never, or very seldom, sow the same kind of grain on 
the same field year after year. 

Summer tillage should be observed only in connection with a 
rotation of crops that will restore the plant-food and conserve the 
moisture of the soil. One rotation that can be recommended for 
fairly good soils is: "Summer till and sow winter wheat; disk and 
fall plow the wheat stubble for corn the next year; disk the corn 
stubble for a spring grain — oats, wheat or barley ; apply manure dur- 
ing the winter; disk in spring and plow for (sorghum) cane, which 
crop completes the rotation." Another means of restoring the humus 
content of the soil is by turning under green crops of rye and cow 
peas or other green-manuring crops. This method has given almost 
the same advantages as summer tillage, at the same time enriching 
the soil by the addition of humus, but in very dry years trouble may 
be encountered through lack of sufficient water to rot the large 
amount of vegetable matter turned under. 

In average seasons, fall plowing is always best done in time to 
get on a cover crop. Unless the soil is very heavy and tough it 
should not be exposed to the winter frosts without plowing first, 
after manuring heavily. Then follow with the fall and winter grains, 
or with some root crop like turnips. If sod land is to be planted in 
the spring, plow it as early in the fall as possible, so that the decay 
of grass and roots will begin before hard frosts. Leave the land in 
ridges for this purpose by setting the furrow slices up on end. But 
if sod land is to be fall planted, plow as soon as the grass is cut, 
fertilize and work over with harrows often until about ten days 
before fall planting; then cross-plow and seed. 

Poisoned Soils. 

The Bureau of Soils of the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture says that rotation of crops is demanded on the farms of today 
because their soils are poisoned, not exhausted. The Bureau de- 
clares that every kind of plant excretes a substance that is poisonous 
to itself, but this substance may not be detrimental to other crops, 
and may even be beneficial. By growing the same crop, say wheat, 
upon tiie same land year after year, the toxic or poisonous substance 
given off by the roots of the wheat plants accumulates to such an 
extent that the soil actually becomes poisonous to wheat plants and 
they refuse to grow there. If no other crops be grown on that land, 
or it be fallowed, these toxic substances disappear and wheat can 
again be grown there. Thus we have the benefits of rotation. 

If manures or fertilizers be added to this soil, they have the 
power of neutralizing the poisonous substances so that wheat can 
again be grown there. The manures or fertilizers also add new plant 
food to the soil, but this is a secondary consideration, as the principal 
reason for adding it is to neutralize the toxic substances excreted by 
the roots of the previous crop. 

Perhaps this theory may explain why grasses are injurious to 
young trees. The experiments that have recently been carried on at 



S O I I. F E R T I L I T Y 31 

some experiment stations show that grass growth does have an 
actively poisonous effect on tree roots. 

Seed Sowing. 

Do not forget that the character of the soil has a good deal to do 
with the method of rotation and of seed sowing, whether for virgin 
or worn-out land. On soft, spongy lands that lose surface moisture 
quickly, the seed should be buried deeply. The dry Northwest 
areas usually need much deeper planting than further to the east. 
If the soil is a heavy clay, a light covering can be given to the seed. 
It is usually best not to plant grass seed as deep as grain, but I have 
known of instances when the soil was of that sort that sinks easily 
under tread, where grass seed and grain seed have been mixed to- 
srether and sown alike as to depth and the results have been success- 
ful. 

As to the comparative merits of Medium Red and Mammoth 
clover, a very good rule to follow is to use the Mammoth variety 
where it is apt to be dry, oftentimes for a long period, or where 
the soil is sandy on the surface but with deep clay subsoil. In gen- 
eral the Mammoth will endure dry weather and cold winters better 
than the Medium Red, though it is not so free a late fall grower 
as the latter. As a seed producer, however, it is more valuable than 
the other variety. Wisconsin and Northeastern Minnesota are spe- 
cially adapted to the growth of Mammoth clover, and there large 
crops of seed can be raised in good seasons. 

Commercial Fertilizers. 

As I have said before, all soils are made up of small particles of 
disintegrated rock, with more or less of humus in the substance. 
If a soil is made up of small particles of rock it will be better able 
to gain and retain air and water than if it is of larger particles. It 
needs a loose, warm soil for corn, and deep cultivation to set surplus 
water at liberty, so that the ground will be moist yet warm. This 
is why constant cultivation is the farmer's duty in the corn field. 
In a fine soil bed. the empty spaces between the particles of rock, 
which represent from one-third to one-half its volume, should be 
filled with air and water in about equal parts. If there is nothing 
in these empty spaces but air, the soil is too dry, and needs deeper 
hoeing or plowing to bring up the moisture below. In prolonged 
drouth, constant cultivation with fertilizing gives the result of a soil 
mulch to retain whatever moisture may be below the surface soil. 
But the fertilizing, with stable manures, is a prime principle for con- 
servation of all soil values, and also for the best development of 
the three chief elements of plant food in the soil, nitrogen, phos- 
phoric acid and potash. Almost all the commercial fertilizers now 
sold are what are called complete fertilizers — that is, they have all 
these three plant foods mixed in different percentages. Unless the 
farmer is sure that his land needs exactly that balanced ration of nit- 
rogen, phosphoric acid and potash, he may be doing his lands more 
harm than good by doping them with any one of these graded fer- 



32 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

tilizers. Much better for him to find out what his soil needs of either 
of these, or all, then buy his own plant foods, and mix them him- 
self at home. 

The Pennsylvania Agricultural department says that, "the best 
index as to the needs of any particular soil is the character of the field 
crops grown before planting vegetables. A vigorous growth of stalk 
and leaf, the leaves showing a rich, dark green color, are positive in- 
dications that the soil contains a liberal supply of nitrogen, but even 
such soils generally need more nitrogen for the most profitable gar- 
dening operations than is necessary for general farm crops. Sandy 
and gravelly soils are nearly always deficient in potash, and when 
this element is wanting there is lack of vigor shown in the wood of 
the tree fruits, the fruits are not of high quality, and the grasses do 
not make a thrifty growth. Clay soils usually contain an abundance 
of potash, but not so much phosphoric acid, so that phosphates are 
generally needed in such soils ; in fact, they are needed in nearly all 
classes of soils." 

The farmers in a Maine agricultural district not long ago joined 
in a co-operative club for the home mixing of fertilizers. They 
clubbed together and purchased bone tankage, cotton seed meal, ni- 
trate of soda, acid phosphate, and sulphate of potash. These were 
screened on a barn floor and mixed by shoveling together four times. 
The mixture was applied to potato fields and the yields were as large 
as where the standard commercial fertilizers were used. The mixture 
used per acre was, tankage, 500 pounds ; cotton seed meal, 200 pounds ; 
nitrate of soda, 100 pounds ; acid phosphate, 400 pounds ; sulphate of 
potash, 200 pounds; total, 1,400 pounds. This is of course a heavy 
fertilization but a heavy yield of from 300 to 350 bushels per acre 
resulted. 

A suggested mixture for potatoes to be used on sod land, where 
a good stubble and aftermath has been plowed under, or in connec- 
tion with manure, is as follows : 

Nitrate of soda 100 pounds 

Screened tankage 200 pounds 

Acid phosphate 300 pounds 

Sulphate of potash 200 pounds 

Total 800 pounds 

The above mixtures are intended to supply sufficient fertilizing 
material for a crop of 300 bushels per acre. Attention is called to 
the fact, however, that in using these fertilizers they are only sugges- 
tive and that different conditions of soil make different treatment 
necessary. In no case is it to be expected that fertilizers will take 
the place of good frequent tillage and care of crops. 

If intending to make these home mixtures, buy the materials 
for them only upon a guarantee from a reliable dealer, and get a 
high grade quality of the materials. 

From 20 to 40 bushels of slaked lime per acre is a good pro- 
portion of this fertilizer. Use only a little at first, where soils are 



SOILFERTILITY 33 

heavy or sour, and see what the effect is upon the land. Occasion- 
ally lime applied only in the fall is a good method for results, but, 
as a rule, for the best returns the use of lime both spring and fall 
is advised. Lime is an indirect fertilizer, being a specific in its tonic 
influence upon too hard and compact soils. It breaks up the soil 
and sets free the three elements of phosphoric acid, nitrogen and 
potash, so they can more readily contribute their plant food to the 
growing plant roots. If a plot of the farm has been badly cultivated 
put on at least a ton of caustic lime to the acre in the fall, and at 
least a half-ton more of slaked lime in the spring when freezing 
and thawing are still going on. If the soil is of clay mixture two tons 
in the fall and one in the spring are advised. Use the manure spreader 
but never put on caustic lime unless the field is not to be planted or 
sown for several months. 

Testing Soils. 

As to judging your own soil, it often needs a man with a practical 
experience of years to form a correct value of any soil. For grain 
raising especially, both surface soil and sub-soil should be studied. 
The treatment which a gravelly loam and a fine sandy loam should 
receive, or the crops which can be best raised on these two types, 
is a matter for scientific understanding of the nutrition in each 
soil, and what each needs of help. The same is true of the clay 
loam, black loam or heavy clay soil, and of the limestone soil. Each 
one answers in a different way to the demand for the earth's pro- 
ducts of food or flowers, though fertilizing thoroughly and cultivating 
thoroughly will work wonders with the poorest soil. 

Soil in the same state is apt to be very different in different parts. 
This is another reason why it is desirable wherever possible to get 
an analysis of the soil of the farm. In most states, however, this is 
an expensive process, and many farmers cannot afford it. The state 
should do this work without charge to the farmer, although he should 
direct the work on his own land if he feels that he is unable to gauge 
correctly the character of that land by the crops he can grow. In 
any event, a definite and scientific knowledge of the merits and de- 
merits of the profitable and unprofitable fields on every farm, and 
the causes of these, would keep a good many dollars wasted in saving 
at the spigot to spend at the bunghole. It costs just about as much 
in cash to raise a poor crop as a good one, while the wear and tear 
upon a man's energies and enthusiasm for farming is the most un- 
economic use of time and labor. But you can easily find out where 
*'humus" will return you gain or where it will not. 

The Value of Manures. 

The United States Year Book of Agriculture not long ago gave 
the following summary of the relation of humus to soil fertility : 

"1. The decline in the crop-producing power of many soils is 
due to a loss of the partially decomposed animal and vegetable mat- 
ter known as humus. 

"2. The humus of the soil is decreased by the continuous culti- 



34 WHATIKNOWABOUTFARMING 

vation of grain, cotton, potatoes, or any crop with which the land is 
kept constantly under the plow without addition of any humus- 
forming materials. 

"3. The loss of liumus involves a loss of nitrogen which is one 
of the elements composing humus. The loss of nitrogen from the 
soil is not always due simply to the nitrogen removed by the crop, 
but is frequently caused by waste of the humus by improper methods 
and S3^stems of cultivation. 

"4. The humus of the soil is increased by the use of well-pre- 
pared farm manures, and by a systematic rotation of crops in which 
grasses, or preferably clover, form an important part. 

"5. The loss of humus from the soil results in decreasing its 
pov/er of storing up and properly supplying crops with water. Soils 
with a liberal amount of humus are capable of more effectually with- 
standing drought than similar soils with less humus. In arid regions 
the loss of humus from the soil is more serious than in the regions of 
continuous summer rains. 

"6. In sandy soil the loss of humus is most severely felt. In 
poorly-drained soils, where there is a deficiency of lime, potash, and 
other similar materials, the humus may form sour mould, but this 
can usually be corrected by a dressing of lime, marl, or wood ashes. 

"7. Humus-forming materials, like the decaying animal and 
vegetable matters in farm manures, have the power of combining with 
the potash and phosphoric acid of the soil to form humates which are 
readily assimilated by plants when acted upon by the proper soil 
organism. These humates thus increase to a marked extent the 
available plant food of the soil. 

"8. Farm manures and other humus-forming materials are not 
only valuable for the elements of fertility which they contain, but 
also for the power of making the inert material of the soil more avail- 
able to plants. 

"9. In soil where there is a good stock of reserve materials, it 
is cheaper to cultivate fertility through the agency of humus than 
it is to purchase it in the form of commercial fertilizers." 

The value of manures is specially impressed upon the farmer 
by the above. We realize that manure is the farmer's bank, and the 
stable fertilizer pile is one of the main supports of the whole business 
of modern farming. 

Constant Cultivation. 

I have seen it stated that "In the first ten inches of the seem- 
ingly poorest soil in the garden or on the farm there is as much native 
plant-food stored up per acre as could be purchased for $1,000 in the 
form of commercial fertilizers." But all this wealth of the soil is 
locked away from too many farmers because it is unavailable with- 
out constant cultivation and fertilizing. Twice a week to work the 
soil around crops is not too much. Shallow cultivation is sure to con- 
serve moisture, although too deep cultivation is sometimes likely to 
diminish it. Whether the soil looks as though it needed cultivating 
or not, it should be lightly stirred often. In fact, dry-farming of which 



S O T L F E R T I L I T Y 35 

we hear so much in these days is nothing more or less than the appli- 
cation to the soil of a moistureless land of the same methods by 
which more favored soils are coaxed to greater yields. 

There is only one way to make dry-farming a success. The soil 
must be fertilized in great abundance each year ; this soil must be 
worked until very soft and mellow, and all cultivation must be done 
at the proper time. Early planting is always preferable. In nine 
cases out of ten it will give a larger yield of grain. The same is 
true of vegetable planting. The writer has known land prepared in 
this way to yield 50 bushels of wheat to the acre, and from 100 to 110 
bushels of shelled corn to the acre, and from 90 to 100 bushels of 
oats to the acre. 

Where stable manure for fertilizing cannot be had except at too 
great an expense, pure bone meal and muriate of potash, mixed in 
the proportion of two parts of bone meal to one part of potash, will 
give excellent results. Several hundred pounds to the acre will be 
needed, thoroughly mixed and re-mixed through the soil. This last 
point is a very important one, as the potash carries with it a large 
percentage of salts which must not come in direct touch with the 
roots of the plants, although it is of great use in making the soil 
ready for the nitrogen and phosphorous of the bone-meal. If this 
mixture is applied evenly over the land, it will not be necessary to 
apply again for several years. Fish scrap added to the mixture in 
the proportion of one part scrap to three parts of the fertilizer, will 
act more quickly in securing an early crop the first season. The 
salts in the mixture seem to be death to earth worms and grubs. 

For light thin soils, and where manure must be bought, bone- 
meal alone is a good fertilizer for wheat raising. One farmer reports 
that he bought $24.00 worth of bone-meal for fertilizing his wheat 
field of sixteen acres. As an experiment he sowed all the bone- 
meal on twelve acres of the wheat, sowing it with the seed. On the 
other four acres he used no fertilizer. The four acres yielded ten 
bushels per acre. The sixteen acres returned 23 bushels per acre. 
With dollar wheat that farmer made a profit of $10.00 on each acre 
on the cost of his fertilizer. Other instances, where from five to ten 
bushels per acre of wheat yield have been added by the use of bone- 
meal, are many. The grain is better and plumper and can command 
a higher price, while the convenience of application is apparent. 
Bone fertilizers contain some nitrogen and more phosphoric acid, 
with a small percentage of potash, and are lasting in their effects 
upon the soil. There is a bone fertilizer that is treated with a suffi- 
cient quantity of sulphuric acid to make it more immediately avail- 
able, to which is added a quantity of soluble potash. This fertilizer is 
known as dissolved bone with potash and forms an excellent fertilizer 
for a variety of crops. 

Wood ashes make an excellent fertilizer for the orchard and 
garden. They may be spread broadcast over the land or applied in 
small quantities about the individual trees, bushes or plants. If wood 
ashes could be had in large quantities they would be great helps to 



36 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

grain farming. The ashes contain potash, an element that is deficient 
in most prairie soils in the Northwest. 

Nitrate of soda is chiefly a fertilizer for foliage plants, and on 
other plants it is not good for extensive use. Two hundred to 300 
pounds per acre, put on the soil but not on the plants, may be some- 
times used. Being of quick action it may be used quite late in 
the fall on hardy crops — even until after the 15th of September. Some 
interesting Alabama oat experiments are noted by the Department 
of Agriculture showing a largely increased yield through the use of 
nitrate of soda. The average results of three experiments show that 
fall oats receiving 100 pounds nitrate of soda per acre yielded 14.75 
bushels more than the check tests. With nitrate at three cents a 
pound, and oats fifty cents a bushel, the net profit per acre for the 
nitrate area was over four dollars, for the grain alone, while the in- 
creased yield of straw was a third of a ton. On spring-sown oats 
the use of nitrate of soda and cotton seed meal as fertilizer was either 
without eflfect or actually detrimental. 

Bird manure contains a larger percentage of nitrogen than any 
other manure produced on the farm. According to "Plant Food," a 
small work published for gratuitous distribution by the experiment 
farm at Southern Pines, N. C, a ton of fresh hen manure contains 
32 pounds nitrogen, 17 potash, and 30 pounds phosphoric acid. Be 
careful not to use it too strong, nor too near roots of plants. 

Leaves make excellent bedding for farm animals and by using 
them for this purpose they make the stable manure of double value. 
They can also be used to add humus to the soil by plowing or spading 
them under in the fall. It will pay every soil worker to collect as 
many leaves as he can this fall. Those not needed for immediate 
use should be stored under cover, where they will last for years if 
kept dry. If there is a wood lot nearby collect a quantity from there 
also. The leaves from hardwood trees are the best, but those from 
any tree should be gathered. If your neighbors do not use their 
leaves, cart them away yourself, if they do not object. Leaf mold is 
the richest soil of all, and if you stack away all the dead leaves you 
can get, between layers of soil, they will soon rot down into leaf 
mold. 

Lime a Necessity, 

Lime is one of the very best agencies for fertilizing grain and 
fruit lands. The Genesee Valley of New York, where murl ponds 
are found from which lime is dug every year, is one of the richest 
agricultural and horticultural sections of the state. Muck land often 
needs thorough dressing with lime. Such land often contains iron 
pyrites, and when exposed to air this oxides to iron sulphate or cop- 
peras, and free sulphuric acid may form. Haul out and try what an 
application of lime will do with it as a fertilizer. 

Why is it necessary to use lime? For the same reason that yeast 
is used in bread-making. Lime is not a fertilizer, but is used to 
sweeten the soil made sour by the use of chemical fertilizers, and 
barnyard manures. It also combines with and dissolves the un- 



SOILFERTILITY 37 

soluble potash, nitrogen, phosphoric acid that is in all soils and 
makes them available as plant food. After lime has been applied, 
chemical fertilizers and barnyard manures may be used again to 
advantage. Constant cropping removes from the soil the lime 
necessary to properly dissolve these soil chemicals. For every ton 
of timothy hay you cut you take out of the soil 12 pounds of lime. 
One ton of clover 40 pounds of lime 

" " " wheat straw, 7 " " " 
" " " oat straw, 9 " " " 

" " " corn fodder, 11 " " " 
" " " alfalfa, 50 " " " 

If you do not keep up the supply of lime in the soil your crop 
will not grow normally. Have you noticed that you do not get as 
good crops as formerly, although you prepare the soil just as care- 
fully and use just as much fertilizer? What's the matter? Your 
soil is sick! Try a little lime and double your crops. 

"The Southern Planter" says : "Lime is the one thing that 
stands between us and famine sometime within the next forty years." 
Wood ashes are excellent to keep away some insect troubles. 
Soot is a valuable fertilizer when scattered as a top dressing around 
plants, and is also a good insecticide. Fresh manure must not be 
used on the gardens where the earliest crops are to grow, as it is 
not immediately available, but must rot first. But liquid manure is 
excellent. Liquid manure can be made from many substances, but 
if one wants a stimulator of the first quality and with an even run of 
available plant food, he should use fresh cow manure in the making. 
Get a whisky barrel or other receptacle holding fifty gallons or more 
and to every fifty gallons of water add a half bushel of pure, fresh 
cow manure and two quarts of soot. Let the mixture stand a few 
days, stirring it frequently before applying. As the liquid is used add 
more cow manure, soot and water to keep the stock at about the 
same strength. This will make a mild stimulant that can be used 
with beneficial results at weekly intervals. Where a strong stimu- 
lant is wanted use half the amount of water. 

Manure Spreader. 

The manure spreader furnishes the very best way of getting 
stable manures, or any other fertilizer, distributed upon the soil. 
One farmer says that "it is as far ahead of the old way of wagon 
and fork as the self-binder is ahead of the cradle, the thresher ahead 
of the flail, or the railroad ahead of the old stage coach." This is 
high praise, but a study of the up-to-date machine spreader of me- 
chanical correctness will show that it deserves this praise. If a man 
cannot afford to buy a spreader, some method of co-operation with 
his neighbors is by all means advised. 

Any person can spread the manure who can manage a team — 
children even. The work can be done in one-tenth of the time and 
be spread so evenly that any other farm machine can go over the 
same ground. It does not interfere with cultivation, and can be put 
on after any of the early spring operations, if you haven't time to 



38 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

spare before seeding or planting corn. You can take out two loads 
per day as you go to the farm fields for other work, and thus save 
the farm hours and labor of men and horses. The labor of spreading 
is so cleanly that clothing does not get soiled. The fertilizer will 
pay for the spreader in two years at least, by the extra returns in 
yield that this method of distribution will give, for a small amount of 
manure will go twice as far and produce twice the results that it did 
by the old method of hand-spreading. 

A large-sized spreader drawn by three horses is much better 
than a smaller one with two horses. These western prairies call for 
a big machine that will get over the ground in quick time. They are 
now so arranged, by improvements each year, that the driver can 
regulate the quantity to be scattered, and can distribute anything 
from the coarsest cornstalks to ashes, lime or land plaster. Whatever 
fertilizer used, it can also be distributed in drills as well as broad- 
cast. The machine can also be used for road-building, or for regular 
farm work ; and where two farmers with spreaders combine forces, 
keeping the spreaders constantly at work, much saving of time and 
doubling of results follow. 

The manure spreader pulverizes the material finely so that it 
mixes with the soil better. In a wet season hand-spread manure is 
thick and bunchy. Some spots will be made too rich, with only 
weeds and lodged grain, and the average farm laborer will dump 
unnecessary quantities in many spots, sometimes fifty loads per acre, 
where ten would do if applied by a machine. With a spreader of 100- 
bushels capacity, twenty loads can be taken out in a day, as the 
average time for spreading that amount is about ten minutes for a 
thin layer. 

Manure spreaders for winter use must be very strongly made, 
or rough jolting over frozen fields will ruin the machinery. Manure 
spreading in winter is now advocated at the experiment stations as an 
economy of time and labor when the farmer has the time and labor 
to spare, and also as a saving of the materials of fertility. 

Dry stock feed left in the mangers to bed the stock, is good 
absorbent for the liquid in the gutters. Liquid manure from a cow 
is worth four cents a day on a clover field. This is the manure that 
agrees with the clover plant, and the spreader is the most perfect 
way of applying it to the clover field. Then rotate on the clover 
field, corn, oats, wheat or barley, sowing clover again with the small 
grain in the ratio of about 3 quarts per acre. 

President Taft's Prophecy, 

These methods of conservation of soil are almost unlimited. 
The whole question of the fertility of our farms, however, and of 
our future prospects and possibilities, was pretty thoroughly analyzed 
by President Taft in his address before the National Conservation 
Congress at Kansas City, September 25, 1911. He said: 

"If our population continues to increase at its present rate, we 
shall have in 50 years double the number of people we now have. It 
is necessary, then, that not only our acreage but also our product 



SOILFERTILITY 39 

per acre must increase proportionately so that our people may be 
fed. We must realize that the best land and the land easiest to cul- 
tivate, has been taken up and cultivated, and that the additions to im- 
proved lands and to total acreage in the future, must be of land 
much more expensive to prepare for tillage. The increase per acre 
of the product, too, must be steady each year — yet each year the 
increase becomes more difficult. Still, even in the face of these facts, 
there is no occasion for discouragement. We are going to remain 
a self-supporting country and raise enough food within our borders 
to feed our people. When we consider that in Germany and Great 
Britain crops are raised from land which has been in cultivation for 
1,000 years, and that these lands are made to produce more than 
two and three times per acre what the comparatively fresh lands in 
this country produce in the best states, it becomes very apparent that 
we shall be able to meet the need by better systems of farming and 
more intense and careful and industrious cultivation. The theory 
seems to have been in times past, that soils become exhausted by 
constant cultivation ; but the result in Europe, where acres under con- 
stant use for producing crops of ten centuries are made now to pro- 
duce crops three times those of this country, shows that there is 
nothing in this theory, and that successful farming can be con- 
tinued on land long in use, and that great crops can be raised and 
garnered from it if only it be treated scientifically and in accordance 
with its necessity. There is nothing peculiar about soils in Europe 
that gives the great yield per acre there and prevents its possibility 
in the United States. On the contrary, there is every reason to be- 
lieve that the application of the same methods would produce just as 
large crops here as abroad. * * * It is now proposed to or- 
ganize a force of 3,000 men, one to every county in the United States, 
who shall conduct experiments within the county for the benefit of 
the present farmers and of the embryo farmers who are being edu- 
cated * * * ^I-^fl i^ jg hoped that the actual demonstration on 
farms in the country * * * -^^[11 bring home to the farmers what 
it is possible to do with the very soil that they themselves are culti- 
vating. * * t Y^^g may properly welcome this plan and try it, 
and we may look forward to the middle of this century, when 200,- 
000,000 people shall swear fealty to the starry flag, as a time when 
America will still continue to feed her millions and feed them well 
out of her own soil." 

These are inspiring words with which to end this chapter — and 
need only co-operation between farmers and the national and state 
administrations along these lines of soil cultivation outlined here, 
to make them a practical realit}^ within less than the lifetime of the 
farmer of fifty or over. 

A Recent Instance of Scientific Farming. 

Burlington County, N. J., has a farmer who used his brains to 

develop an old wornout farm of about 300 acres. The farm was sold 

a few years ago for $31,000, but the purchaser did not use modern 

methods and the land ran down in value rapidly. In the spring of 



40 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

1912 it was bought by its present owner for $11,000. In a single sea- 
son, by practicing intensive farming, the farm has been brought to 
such a state of fertility, that about 300 bushels of Irish Cobbler pota- 
toes to the acre are now (early fall of 1912) being harvested, and the 
owner estimates that the net profits of his first crop will almost pay 
for his farm. Of course this means an amount of fertility put into 
the soil which will be used for rotating crops for several seasons to 
come, and will mean not only reinbursement for capital but for the 
large expenses incurred this season. 



CHAPTER III 

Inings to Kncviv About Fertilizers 

A Condensation of the Facts About Soil, As Outlined in the Fore- 
going Chapter. 

For Portions of this Credit is Due "The Garden and Farm Almanac," 
Published by Doubleday, Page & Co. 

A COMPLETE FERTILIZER is one which contains the three 
essential fertilizing constituents, i. e., nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid and potash. 

Nitrogen exists in fertilizers in three distinct forms, viz., 
as organic matter, as ammonia, and as nitrates. It is the most ex- 
pensive fertilizing ingredient. 

Nitrates furnish the most readily available forms of nitrogen. 
The most common are nitrate of soda and nitrate of potash (salt- 
petre). 

Nitrification is the process by which the highly available nitrates 
are formed from the less active nitrogen of organic matter, ammonia, 
salt, etc. It is due to the action of minute microscopic organisms. 

Phosphoric acid, one of the essential fertilizing ingredients, is de- 
rived from materials called phosphates. It does not exist alone, but 
in combination, most commonly as phosphate of lime in the form 
of bones, rock phosphate, and phosphatic slag. Phosphoric acid oc- 
curs in fertilizers in three forms — soluble, reverted, and insoluble 
phosphoric acid. 

Superphosphate. — In natural or untreated phosphates the phos- 
phoric acid is insoluble in water and not readily available to plants. 
Superphosphate is prepared from these by grinding and treating with 
sulphuric acid, which makes the phosphoric acid more available to 
plants. Superphosphates are sometimes called acid phosphates. 

Potash, as a constituent of fertilizers, exists in a number of 
forms, but chiefly as chlorid or muriate and as sulphate. All forms 
are freely soluble in water. The chief sources of potash are the potash 
salts from Stassfurt, Germany — kainit, sylvinit, muriate of potash, 
sulphate of potash, and sulphate of potash and magnesia. Wood 
ashes and cotton-hull ashes are also sources of potash. 

Manures. 

Soil is productive when it has good physical texture, plant-food 
and a sufficient supply of moisture. Even though it has an abund- 
ance of plant-food, if its texture is not good, it will not raise a good 
crop. The best soil is open, mellow, friable ; rather than loose and 
leechy, or hard and cloddy. Commercial fertilizers add plant-food, 
but usually they have only a small influence in correcting faulty 
textures. Therefore, before these concentrated fertilizers are applied 



42 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

to land, it should be gotten into good physical condition by judicious 
tillage and by the incorporation of vegetable mold or humus. The 
leading source of humus in most gardens is stable manure. Manure 
adds plant food to the soil, and it also improves the texture of the 
soil. When available no commercial fertilizer need be used, as it 
is a complete fertilizer as well as a corrector of faulty soil texture. 
The most desirable manure for the garden and for house plants is 
probably old cow manure. It does not burn or lose its strength and 
mixes well with soil and leaf mold. 

Beds which are to be used for flowers next year may be dressed 
with manure in the fall and deeply spaded, leaving the surface rough 
and loose. 

A good fertilizer for house plants is heavy grass sods. The best 
results are obtained when, after they are cut and laid grass-side down 
in several layers, 3 to 4 inches of air-slacked lime is sprinkled on top 
of each layer. This is allowed to become thoroughly decomposed. 

Farmyard manure does contain all the constituents of plant food, 
and it also causes a certain amount of disintegration of the soil. 
It has a warming effect on cold clayey lands, and retains moisture 
and ammonium compounds in sandy leechy soils. 

Analysis of Manure. 

This table gives the value per ton of the three important fertiliz- 
ing elements contained in various kinds of manure : 

Cattle Horses Hogs Sheep Chickens 

Manure water.... 75.25 % 48.69 % 74.13 % 59.52% 56.20 % 

Nitrogen 426% .490% .840% .768% 802.000% 

Phosphoric acid.. .290% .260% .390% .391% 502.000% 

Potash 440% .480% .320% .591% 80.900% 

Value per ton..., $2.02 $2.21 $3.29 $3.30 $7.07 

It will be seen that three elements, nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 
potash, are contained in manures to the value of from $2.00 to $7.00 
per ton. 

Comparison of yields from application of fresh and rotted man- 
ure. Yields per acre in bushels : 

Corn Bus. Wheat Bus. 

Unmanured 38.1 16.1 

Fresh manured 70.7 19.7 

Rotted manure 65.1 19.1 

Grain from fresh manure over unmanured land 32.6 3.6 

Grain from rotted manure 27.6 3.0 

Grain from fresh manure over rotted manure 5.0 0.6 

Corn. — -Average of 4 crops. Wheat. — Average of 2 crops. 

Results of applying fresh and rotted manure before and after 
plowing. Yields per acre : 



THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT FERTILIZERS 43 

Fresh Manure. 

Corn Wheat. 

Grain Bus. Fodder Lbs. Grain Bus. Straw Lbs. 

Before plowing- 87.2 6,950 20.3 1,080 

After plowing 98.1 7,500 22.3 1,160 

Grain from using manure 

as a top dressing 10.9 550 2.0 80 

Rotted Manure. 

Corn Wheat. 

Grain Bus. Fodder Lbs. Grain Bus. Straw Lbs. 

Before plowing 82.3 6,550 19.8 760 

After plowing 32.6 6,450 20.7 960 

Grain from using manure 

as a top dressing 0.3 100 .09 200 

Wheat. — Average of one crop. Corn. — Average of two crops. 

Poultry Manure a Good Fertilizer. 

Fresh dropped poultry manure is a dangerous fertilizer when 
applied to vegetation alone, as it contains so much heat. If it is to 
be used in its fresh state it makes a good fertilizer by adding Yz its 
volume of gypsum, often called land-plaster. To this may be added 
some icommon salt. This is then mixed thoroughly together and let 
stand for a few days before using. W^ood ashes and lime should 
not be mixed with chicken manure as they will destroy the strength 
by neutralizing the ammonia contained in the chicken manure. Lime 
is an excellent fertilizer when mixed with barnyard manure. 

Wood ashes are a very good fertilizer for lawns and all kinds of 
grasses. They contain a large percentage of potash and can be ap- 
plied wherever this element is needed. 

Commercial fertilizers vary a great deal in composition and 
hence in value. Some contain more of one element than another 
and their values change for various crops. A concentrated fertilizer 
contains from 1.75 to 3% of nitrogen, from 3 to 12^% of potash and 
from 9 to 20% of phosphoric acid. There has been more or less 
fraud connected with the sale of commercial fertilizers, and in pur- 
chasing it is not only important to know the percentage of each 
element present, but to know the percentage available as well. It 
is cheaper and usually more satisfactory to mix one's own fertilizer 
if needed. 

The Value of Lime as a Fertilizer. 
Liming is a very old agricultural practice, and the importance of 
lime as a so-called fertilizer has long been recognized, -although its 
true value is being largely explained by investigations that are now 
in progress. As a rule, the beneficial efTect of lime has heretofore 
been ascribed mainly to its action in improving the texture and drain- 
age of the soil, in hastening the decomposition of organic matter in 
the soil, in rendering the inert nitrogen of the soil humus more avail- 
able to plants, and in assisting in setting free the potash and other 



44 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

inert fertilizing constituents of the soil. While all these benefits may 
fairly be expected to result from the use of lime under proper condi- 
tions, recent investigations have shown that it performs other equally 
important functions in the soil, and that its abundance or deficiency 
there is a matter of greater importance than it was formerly supposed 
to be. 

It has been generally assumed that there is a sufficient quantity 
of lime in most soils to meet the demands of ordinary crops. The 
Minnesota, Rhode Island and other stations have shown that except 
in limestone regions it is likely to be as deficient as potash or phos- 
phoric acid. Especially is this true of soils derived from the decom- 
position of granite. In testing the fertilizer requirements of soils it 
becomes as important, therefore, to determine whether lime is defi- 
cient as whether potash and phosphoric acid are lacking. A deficiency 
of lime may be due to the continued growth and removal of crops 
without liming, or to leaching out of lime, a process which is continu- 
ally going on and which is greatly hastened by the use of certain fer- 
tilizers, especially muriate of potash. The liberal use of muriate of 
potash and similar fertilizers on a soil not abundantly supplied with 
lime should be accompanied by periodical applications of lime. 

A deficiency of lime in the soil is accompanied by a state of 
acidity, or sourness, fatal to the vigorous growth of many crops. 
The Rhode Island Station has shown that this condition of acidity 
is widespread even in upland soils which are well drained and not 
supposed to be sour, as well as in low, wet soils. It was found in ex- 
periments in this station with different forms of nitrogen that sul- 
phate of ammonia was positively poisonous to plants on such soils 
when it was not used in connection with lime. When the acidity of 
the soil was corrected by applications of air-slacked lime, the sulphate 
of ammonia was beneficial. This beneficial effect of lime was prob- 
ably largely due to the fact that the lime restored the alkaline condi- 
tion of the soil necessary to the transformation (by nutrition) of the 
sulphate of ammonia into nitrates so necessary to most crops. 

Soil Preparation. 

Very few soils are in readiness for cropping with the simple plow- 
ing of the land. If the best results are to be obtained, the soil must 
be properly prepared. The treatment of course differs with different 
classes of soils. The depth of plowing depends upon whether they 
are sand, clay or loam and upon the depth of the root system of the 
crop to be put on. In any event a poorly prepared seed-bed is an 
excellent way to secure a partial, if not complete crop failure. 

In breaking new land the mistake is often made of plowing so 
that the slices are completely inverted. These should be left standing 
edgewise so that the elements can work on all parts of the slices and 
disintegration be more thorough. 

After plowing, the disking, harrowing, cultivating and rolling 
must be determined by the character of the soil. The object is to 
thoroughly pulverize the land. The plow is the most economical pul- 
verizing agent. 



THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT FERTILIZERS 45 

Conservation of Soil Fertility. 

To ascertain whether or not your farm is being- run so that it 
is holding its own in matter of fertility and not declining", it is only 
necessary to calculate the amounts of nitrog-en, potash and phosphoric 
acid sold from it and see whether enough is put back to take their 
place. The following is a table giving the amounts of the three ele- 
ments per ton of product: 

Data from Pennsylvania and Minnesota Ex. Stations. 

K20-Pot- 
M. lbs. P205 lbs. ash lbs. 

Timothy Hay 25 9 40 

Clover Hay 35 14 30 

Wheat Straw 11 4 30 

Oat Straw 12 4 18 

Wheat 45 20 12 

Oats 33 16 11 

Barley 40 18 11 

Rye 42 20 13 

Flax 87 32 14 

Corn 32 14 8 

Wheat Shorts 48 31 20 

Wheat Bran 54 52 30 

Linseed Meal 100 35 25 

Cottonseed Meal 130 35 56 

Milk 10 3 3 

Cheese 90 23 5 

Live Cattle 53 y? 3 

Potatoes 7 3 11 

Butter 1 1 1 

Live Pigs 40 17 3 

Rotation of crops and diversified farming are the most successful 
ways to retain and increase the fertility of soils as well as increase 
the yield of products. By keeping cattle and feeding them the fertil- 
ity is returned to the soil, as has been explained in a previous chapter. 

Prof. Harry Snider, late of the Minnesota Ex. Station, gives the 
following principles involved in crop rotation : 

1. Deep and shallow rooted crops should alternate. 

2. Humus consuming and humus producing crops should alter- 
nate. 

3. Crops should be rotated so as to place the weak feeding crops 
before the gross feeding ones. Thus do not follow clover and timothy 
with mangel but rather with flax. 

4. Crops should be rotated so as to secure nitrogep indirectly 
from atmospheric sources and to promote desirable bacterial activities 
in the soil. 

5. Crops should be rotated so as to keep the soil in the best 
mechanical condition. 

6. In arid regions crops should be rotated to make the most use 
of soil water. 



46 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

7. An even distribution of farm labor should be secured by a 
rotation. 

8. Farm manures and fertilizers should be used in the rotation 
where they will do the most good. 

9. Rotations should be planned so as to produce fodder for stock 
and so that every year there will be some important "money crop" to 
be sold. 

Making Straw Pay. 

This is the way a Missouri slope farmer is turning his straw into 
dollars. As he tells the story it runs as follows : 

"I raise grain for the straw, for during the past 10 years I have 
made more clean profit from feeding the straw to stock than I have 
from the grain. A few years ago I got hold of $25, took it to the bank, 
deposited it, took a check book and started out among my neighbors. 
Whenever I found a yearling for sale I bought it if I could, giving a 
check for $1. After I had the stock purchased I went back to the 
bank, mortgaged the cattle and finished paying for them. I got the 
stock home and fed them wheat straw when they could not rustle ; 
when the wheat straw was gone I fed oat straw ; when that was fin- 
ished I fed hay until they could go on pasture. 

"Many of those long yearlings I bought during the winter I sold 
the following fall for twice what I had paid for them. I have followed 
that plan for a number of years. When I had an abundance of straw 
I let the stock run to the stack, and if I was short I fed it out. The 
most of the work with my stock has been during the seasons of the 
year when I could not work at anything else. 

"And here is another thing for you fellows to think of. I've put 
more barnyard fertilizer back on my land than any farmer in Morton 
county. My plan is to fall plow part of my land and after it freezes 
up I spread with a manure spreader six loads per acre. This will not 
leave it so thick but that a drill and harrow will work it nicely. That 
means more grain and more straw for the next crop." 



CHAPTER IV 

Xne Business Farmer 

"¥ N preaching, teaching and farming there is less opportunity for 
I and less to be gained by dishonesty than in most other voca- 
1 tions." 

The farmers who have been most successful in all the 
branches of farming are those who have had a large amount of prac- 
tical experience. The only way a thorough knowledge of agriculture 
can be acquired is by working out the great farm problems, each man 
for himself. This is admitted by those who have been very successful 
farmers. The most thorough education acquired in the best col- 
leges of our land is only a fraction of what the average man should 
know to make life a success. There is no school or college in the land 
that affords so much of varied instruction as does the farm life, or 
where the impressions are so lasting and strengtliening to the mind, 
}'et in a vast majority of cases the man who has a trained intellect 
will make a better farmer, and farm to a better purpose than will his 
uneducated neighbor. 

Country Life Commissions. 

Since the report of the Country Life Commission appointed by 
former President Roosevelt, there is already to be seen a new farm- 
ing movement in the West and Northwest. In fact, it reaches to 
every part of the country, and the city, waking up to the fact of how 
much the progress and comfort of the city dweller depends upon 
the preservation and extension of scientific farming is co-operating 
more with the idea of conservation of country life. Cities are appoint- 
ing country life committees, and the states of Washington, Oregon, 
Idaho and Montana have already "State Country Life" commissions. 
New Jersey recently held the first country life meeting ever held by 
the state in the interest of ideal modern farming as a national idea. 
Massachusetts has had a state movement for some years which works 
with the state agricultural college along the idea of betterment of 
farm conditions. Minnesota and Wisconsin are working steadily 
toward systematic union of all farm societies that have the idea of 
business farming as their base, for in the Middle West has been 
the place where the business farmer has become a chief factor in 
feeding the world for more than a half century past. 

The large farms and ranches of that section have done much to 
show what can be done by farming on a large scale. They have given 
an immense amount of business to the cities in the way of farm imple- 
ments of all kinds and of building materials. High grade stock has 
been bought. Fancy poultrying has introduced entirely new ideas 
into the care of even the common hen. The breeding of the best 
blood in horses, cows, sheep and hogs has improved the whole science 



48 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

of veterinary care, and lifted the profession to a new dignity. The 
fences for millions of acres have called for special attention. Stock 
must be shipped back and forth and products find a market. 

All these needs for the large farms have brought an immense 
addition to the demands upon the transportation facilities of the 
country. In answer to that demand the railroad systems of the far 
West and Middle West have grown from 9,021 miles in 1850 to over 
200,000 miles in 1910. Between 1880 and 1890 70,000 miles of rail- 
road were built. Statistics show that this was as much as had been 
built in the 50 years before that by three leading countries of Europe. 
And it was largely built to meet the wants of emigration to the 
western lands where the settlers were opening up the farming and 
grazing sections and making bonanza agriculture. 

But now railroad construction goes on much more slowly. The 
big farms are broken up into smaller ones — still large enough to be 
estates. Small farms are growing up in irrigated lands and calling 
settlers there, but the need for rapid railroad construction has passed, 
and with it the era of high transportation rates. Farmers can now, 
by a system of co-operation, control this question to a considerable 
extent. But with this advantage, has come also the present era of 
combinations of the control of farm products which has threatened to 
be as disastrous to profitable farming as was that of the railroads 
twenty-five years ago. In the struggle that has followed the business 
farmer will not, however, meet his Waterloo at last. For now he has 
the nation enlisted on his side. No matter what "parties" come into 
power, the day of high prices has ranged the farmer and the consumer 
side by side in the economic battle, in which the "special interests" 
will go down. 

Economical Farm Management. 

The first thing the farmer must put his business foresight into is 
the question of the most economical management of his acres. When 
some of the wisest men of the country are pointing out the leaks in 
our business enterprises, it is surely time for our farmers to study 
frugality in farming, and the most efficient methods of getting mar- 
ketable returns. 

What may be saved by a careful attention to strict economy on 
the farm happens to be extremely well shown by the words of a 
Minnesota farmer of my acquaintance. He was asked to give his 
experience in agricultural economy for the benefit of a western farm 
journal with a large circulation. I quote verbatim from his letter to 
that paper: 

"Some intelligent farmer should compile statistics that would 
show in actual figures what is ordinarily lost on four farms out of 
five. Although I have not kept strict account I give here some gen- 
eral information that may be of interest. From September 1 to 
January 1 of each year I never have any hog feed ; that is, I never 
store it up for that period but rely on wasted grain for that purpose. 
In the first place I have a woven wire hog pen, iust the sire of my 
stock yard, which I move after threshing so that it will include the 



THE 13 U S I N E S S FAR M E R 49 

old stack yard and straw pile. It can also be removed to any field 
where the crop has not been gathered by reason of hail, frost or rain. 
Then after the stacking is done I go over the fields carefully and pick 
up stray bundles — everything that will feed man or beast. Possibly 
this makes the scientific farmer smile but I have never yet done this 
without at least one grain stack to show for my two or three days* 
work. This year so far I have a good big stack and a half from 180 
acres, and have 120 acres left to work over. On one 12-acre patch 
that a renter had stacked, I secured three big loads of oats, which 
means a trifling sum of $30. About half of this is fit to thresh and 
market and the other half goes to the pigs. The man that rents this 
place hasn't a milch cow, a chicken, a pig or an overcoat on his place, 
yet $15 (his share of the oats) looks smaller than three hours' work 
to him. A man can live in any township where there is a strong pro- 
portion of renters and each year buy the privilege of that class to 
glean their fields and feed more hogs with the gleanings than the 
state legislature's appropriation bills number." 

I have known two young men who were good examples of the 
successful and unsuccessful man. Each had a good common school 
education. Both began quite early to do odd jobs for a few pennies. 
But one of them had the good or ill fortune to inherit several thou- 
sand dollars from a distant relative. The first large remittance of his 
inheritance sent to him looked like an inexhaustible mine. He mar- 
ried, set up a pleasant home, plunged to a considerable extent in the 
gambling ring and was becoming quite a source of gossip for his 
manner of living when the end of his resources came. He had spent 
his whole inheritance and went back to work at his trade. 

The other man, who had nothing but his own industry and ability 
to depend upon, probably felt envious of his friend's fortunate chance, 
but he kept on at his work. From picking berries he went to selling 
eggs on a small margin. Then he sold butter and eggs to the 
employes of the coal and fruit trains on the railroad until he was able 
to get a training at telegraphy and a position as night operator at a 
railroad station. From here he went into business and though now a 
little past 30 he is independent and lives in a pleasant home past 
which the windfall man goes every night and morning to his day's 
work. 

The former had formed the habit of saving, and no matter how 
small his income he never lived up to its limit, and he invested his 
savings wisely. It takes self-denial and perseverance to stick to this 
resolution — but after the first few years the reward begins to appear 
and the art of living becomes easier. But don't lose your head then 
— for ten thousand dollars lost at 35 years is far worse than one 
thousand at 25 years. The more capital a man has the greater need 
that he shall not put all his eggs in one basket when he makes a busi- 
ness venture. 

Labor-Saving Tools and Methods. 
Book farming and practical farming must go together in future. 
The study of soils, the diseases of plants, the principles of veterinary 



so WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

science and the care of the dairy are especially studies of great eco- 
nomic value to the young farmer. Let him get all the help he can 
from agricultural books, papers and bulletins, and above all, let him 
get the necessary outfit to farm with all the labor-saving devices pos- 
sible. Besides his team, w^agons, harness, small tools and absolutely 
essential household and barn equipments he will need a walking plow, 
gang plow, disk and spike-tooth harrows, drills, binder, mower, rake 
and, if he can possible manage it, a manure spreader and gasoline 
engine. 

Tools should be kept clean. If the season's rush prevents this 
it should be attended to in the fall. A little cleaning then, and coat- 
ing the metal parts with a mixture of oil and rosin to prevent rusting 
will save a good deal of outlay by and by. After this is done all the 
tools and machinery should be kept in a peitectly dry place and so 
arranged that any article can be found easily. Most tool houses are 
not well planned as to getting tools and machinery in and out. 

The question of motor power on the farm has become more of 
a necessity, instead of less, since the large farms have been cut up 
into smaller ones, and the big ranges have been divided up into stock 
farms. Some power for pumping which will be systematic and regu- 
lar, as need demands, is required; and while the windmill has been 
an excellent servant in this respect and for windy localities will con- 
tinue to be, the gasoline engine is more reliable for emergencies, for 
cold weather or for prolonged periods of no wind. In fact, no power 
is so suitable, from the points of immediate readiness, facility of 
action, and economy of fuel. A gasoline engine costs but a little 
more than a windmill. 

However, many farmers cannot as yet purchase a gasoline 
engine. But they can still use the old-time tread power. The mod- 
ern treadmill has a level tread, thus making it easier for the horses, 
especially if they are gradually accustomed to the action of the tread, 
and no one team is kept at work ever for a whole day. An automatic 
governor is supplied. This power is not used so much as it should be 
in the Middle West, largely because of the wider advertising given 
newer powers. 

Another point; with the present increase of land values do not 
buy scrub stock for a valuable farm. Improved cattle will bring 
prices to match the acres and cost no more to keep than mongrels. 
Buy few to start with, but have those of good quality. Don't pay too 
much attention to pedigrees. Then weed out poor females each year 
and retain valuable ones. 

Keep Farm Accounts. 

In order to know how you stand, especially on the stock ques- 
tion, keep a regular system of accounts. If you haven't time to do it 
yourself, get your wife to do it. Or, if she hasn't time either, let the 
boys on the farm keep the accounts of the business. If you have no 
boys, set the girls to work at this. January is a good month in which 
to take an inventory of the previous year, and below is given a simple 



THE BUSINESS FARMER 



51 



form, as a suggestion only, which first appeared in the Canadian 
Thresherman, 

Inventory for year ending 

RESOURCES. 



Acres at $ per acre 

Acres at $ per acre 

Buildings on above valued at 

Wells, towers, tanks, pumps, valued at. 

Fences, etc., valued at 

Machinery valued at 

Wagons, buggies, sleighs, valued at. . . . 

Harness, valued at 

Bushels Wheat at $ per bus. . . 

Oats $ " 



Barley 
Flax 



Tons Hay 
" Straw 

Head Cattle 
" Hogs 
" Horses 
" Sheep 



Poultry, valued at. 
Accounts due from others. 

Cash on hand 

Cash in Bank 



$ 

$ " 

$ 

$ per ton 

$ " 

$ per head 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 



Total resources 



LIABILITIES. 
Due on Land 






Rent due 






Due on Building-s 






Due on Machinery 






Due on Notes 






Due to Bank 






Estimated Depreciation 












Total Liabilities 






Total Resources 












Total Net Worth 






Net worth previous year 












Profit for year 







52 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

The use of the autorr^obile on large farms has been an accepted 
fact for some time. But its value for truck farmers living near large 
cities will be also demonstrated more and more as its usefulness and 
speed in getting garden products to market becomes more practically 
applied. The application of the motor power of the machine for stock 
watering and dairy purposes is only another instance of the labor- 
saving and time-saving uses of the auto in modern farming. 

The Standard Oil Company, in league with the liquor law, seeks 
to bar the farmer from liberal laws as to the manufacture of dena- 
tured alcohol on the farm, thus preventing him frofn using alcohol for 
power and light; but the growing independence of the farmer as a 
voter has helped to check the dangers from these two powerful inter- 
ests. Try that same voting power to influence legislation which 
shall bring the farmer more than a fraction of the dollar paid by the 
consumers of his product. 



CHAPTER V 

0\vn I our Farm 

IF it is possible, by all means, own your farm. Should you find it 
necessary to lease at first, always keep before you the one aim of 
finally being the owner of the land you till. Leasing, undoubtedly, 
has many points in its favor, and to many prospective farmers it is 
the only course to pursue for the first few years. In either case, 
whether you buy or sell, be sure that everything is done in a business- 
like manner and that the papers are all legally drawn up. This will 
save trouble, annoyance and possible expense later on. 

When buying, look for a location where there will be wood for 
fuel and other purposes, good water, a congenial neighborhood and 
good market advantages. 

If you have but little capital when you buy, 50 acres well and 
intelligently cultivated will probably yield proportionately more clear 
money to the acre than will your neighbor's big farm of two or 
three hundred acres ; he has to meet the problem of help and the 
waste that is more likely to follow where a large farm must be culti- 
vated. 

The first item, that of hired help on large farms, cuts down the 
amount of profits greatly. The supply and quality of hired farm 
labor has been growing less and poorer for years. The farmer often 
gets no fair equivalent for the wages he must pay, and therefore is 
often forced to extend the hours of labor in order to accomplish re- 
sults in special seasons. This is all wrong and between the three 
problems of interest, taxes and labor the day of the large farm is 
doomed. Intensive farming also has become more necessary as 
wheat and grain farming begin to show the natural results of run-out 
land. The next generation will own small farms clear of debt and 
these farms will be worked by the labor of the family, aided by ma- 
chinery, to a great extent, unless the demand for combination at last 
brings the farming community into a national farmers' union, where 
labor becomes a factor to be shared in emergencies, as our pioneer 
grandfathers learned to do. 

Time Is Money. 
In selecting your small farm with an eye to securing as good a 
soil as your chosen locality furnishes, don't think too lightly of your 
own future labors, because you are now young and strong. If there 
are poor spots in the farm that a very little outlay will make fertile, 
don't consider this a great drawback, providing you can get your 
farm cheap enough. A man's youth is his capital, however, and he 
wants it to bring him a good interest without the necessity of a 16 
or 18-hour day of labor. There are farms where the hired man is 



54 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

expected in busy seasons, to rise at 4 a. m. and to go to bed at 10 p. 
m., sometimes 11 p. m. What wonder that laborers will not go upon 
farms to work when in all cities now a day's work is from 8 to 10 
hours? If you cannot make a success of farming by averaging a day's 
work between sunrise and sunset, try some other way of getting a 
living, for you are not a business farmer. You are living on your 
capital, living wastefully on it, but you are not making a living. You 
are using up life at both ends. 

Therefore if you must spend several years in getting stones off 
your land, draining marshes, or stumping, be sure that the price of the 
land is low enough to figure out a fair profit for your five years or 
so of preparatory work. It is good financiering to pay $50.00 for a 
thing that requires $50.00 more outlay to make it worth $106.00 pro- 
vided you get quick returns. But remember again that time is 
money. 

You will probably be in debt for a part of your farm. Not many 
farmers begin without some incumbrance, but that is not of so much 
matter if you keep your credit above question. In 1890 more than 
one-half of the farms of the United States were operated subject to 
mortgage or a landlord. Between 1890 and 1900, however, this pro- 
portion was greatly decreased. Be prompt in meeting all financial 
obligations, and as to credit, so long as your yearly balance sheet 
shows that your land is increasing in fertility don't worry too 
much over what you owe. But don't begin your credit system at the 
stores of the neighboring towns or cities. When you go to the mar- 
ket town with produce always take home more money than you took 
with you. People will soon begin to regard you as a "safe debtor," 
if you prove that you mean to end by being a safe creditor. 

Three Classes of Farmers. 

Aside from the speculative farmer, who runs his "estate" from 
a distance, the working farmers of this country can be put into three 
classes. There is the slovenly one, who wears his clothes until they 
will stand with dirt, reeks of the stables, and keeps his home and 
surroundings as slovenly as himself. Don't belong to his class. 

How about the miserly thrifty sort? He cares little for the out- 
side world, eats what he can't sell in town, and is always increasing 
his gains. Does he ever spend any of these gains in making life hap- 
pier and easier for his wife and children? Do Sundays and holidays 
mean anything but more chances to work and glean when other 
people are not working and gleaning? Don't belong to this class. 

The farmer's life ought to be one of the happiest of lives. Make 
it your first resolve, after the resolve to pay your debts, that you and 
your family will get some comfort and happiness as you go along. I 
put the debt-paying first because no honest man can be happy unless 
he is paying his debts. But while you are doing this, give your wife 
a comfortable home before she is so worn out that she cannot enjoy 
it, and see that your children have the children's rights of growing 
up through a happy childhood. 



OWNYOURFARM 55 

To this third class of farmers, a constantly increasing one, be- 
long the prosperity and class dignity of the farmers of the United 
States. Such a farmer has time for work and play and money for 
both. His mile farm is paid for, his stock well fed and housed, his 
farm machinery protected, his buildings kept in repair, his family 
well provided for and educated. 

He believes in God and man. And why? Because he has been 
self-respecting enough to make the best of what Ciod gave to him to 
start with ; youth, health and strength. Through these three natural 
forces of the world he has gained control of land, labor and capital — 
the three other sources of power. This kind of a farmer is the one 
who is steadily helping on the agricultural cause and is making an 
effective stand against that power of capitalization in cities which is 
bringing us dangerously near the proprietary landlordism of the old 
world. If all farmers realized what a power our ten million and 
more of farmers might be toward the betterment and financial encour- 
agement of their class there would be far less dissatisfaction with the 
farm and its life. 

Organization. 

Farmers need to organize more, not only to protect their own 
interests, but to improve neighborhood conditions. Unite together, 
not for grain elevators and for grange banks, but in a general system 
of co-operation in all rural matters. Make such a system national 
in its scope and it will do more for the children of the present gen- 
eration than all the probate courts can give them when this genera- 
tion passes. The farmer's prosperity means wealth to the people. 
But at what an unnecessary cost of agricultural time and labor is 
that national wealth gained. Somewhere between "the man who 
understands the farmer's needs" so well — (just before election!) — 
and the man in the distant city who fixes the market price for the 
products of the farm, the farmer's own prosperity is too often lost. 
As some one says, cinch bugs are not so fatal to the crop as are 
these two agents. 

So far every step toward better market returns has been chiefly 
one of theory. But progress in organization among farmers has been 
slow and conservative — and probably that has been the safer way. 
Agitation is beginning to count now, however, and within the next 
ten years the farmer will see a more equitable relation between pro- 
duction and profits. Let him keep on in his resolve to apply the best 
business methods to the marketing of his products and the same or- 
ganizing methods of control that are now used in all other lines of 
work and he will find that he will at last get his just share of his 
yearly harvests. 

One very great aid in establishing the unity of interests and or- 
ganization of a rural community lies in those days when the farmers 
get together for social reunions. Make these occasions frequent ones. 
Get away from the grind for a half day, a day, or a week. Try 
occasionally a camping-out party, travel, get a chance to meet the 
faces of your neighbors in a new atmosphere. 



56 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Grow the woodbine around J;he schoolhouse on Arbor day. Care- 
fully plant trees and protect them from stock. Most country school- 
houses stand alone without shade of any kind. The days when 
country festivals bring the neighborhood together might well be 
given to tree-planting. The elm is one of the best for shade and per- 
manence, and for varying localities. Take the precaution to protect 
these trees by making an enclosure of four boards 6 feet long, 2 
inches wide and 1 inch thick. Set these about the young saplings at 
about four to five inches distance from it. Wind these boards from 
the ground up with barbed wires set closely together, and you will 
have a protection that will keep away all young animal stock and 
quite likely young human stock. 

Plant roses, wild or cultivated. Get the boys and girls to raise 
flowers. Five cents worth of seeds bought by each child in a family 
will give a variety for several individual beds. In this way the small 
country school can help greatly in the training of farm boys and girls 
in agriculture. For weakly or delicate children one of the best health 
restorers is to work in the soil a portion of the day. Give the children 
each a plot of ground and show them how to use a hoe, rake, trowel 
and watering pot. Don't tell them too much how to grow things. A 
little specific detail at the right moment is much better than a whole 
discourse at the wrong time on potatoes, sweet corn, peas, radishes or 
lettuce. Let them plant slips and repot flowers, transplant and prune, 
do grafting and make grafting wax. They can learn the use of the 
spray also — and how to use manures and fertilizers and the special 
value of each kind of fertilizer, as well as the choice of seeds and the 
various methods of sowing them. Thus the home or school ma}^ 
be made very beautiful and attractive to the child. 

Not long ago a Minnesota town offered, at the time of its street 
fair, prizes for beautifying home surroundings. Photographs were 
taken in July or August and prizes were awarded accordingly. All 
state fair associations ought to follow this hint.- A few hundred dol- 
lars distributed yearly in prizes for the best grove of planted trees or 
for the best planned landscape gardening would stimulate every farm- 
er to beautify his home, and if the children could be induced to share 
in this spirit of emulation what a difference it would make in the 
general attitude of the next generation toward farming. The country 
dweller gets too little out of his country life. Why not a saddle 
horse? Even if a man is getting toward 40 or 50, so much the more 
need of one. As for his children, every little boy and girl likes to 
have for his or her very own, a pony to ride or drive as fancy may 
dictate. 

Give the Children Pleasant Memories. 
Those parents who have the happiness and contentment of their 
children at heart and feel that they can aft'ord a pony, should provide 
them v/ith one that is both strong and gentle. He should be strong 
enough to carry two or three of the children on his back at one time 
or to draw a cartful of them. Too often, particularly on the farm, 
everything of this kind is sacrificed for a new barn or more land and 



OWNYOURFARM 57 

the children grow up with no pleasant memories to bind them to the 
farm. Usually all they can remember of farm life is its incessant 
drudgery. 

But simply giving them the pony is not enough — they should be 
taught how to care for it ; how to keep the stall clean and wholesome, 
how to groom it and the art of oiling his mane and tail and the neces- 
sity of doing these things often and regularly. The pony's stall 
should be warm, roomy and light and provided with a thick bed of 
straw at night. This care will make the children and pony fast 
friends and at the same time the children will be learning valuable 
lessons. 

Ponies like apples and sugar and will soon learn to expect some- 
thing. If you will, for a few days, have some dainty about you to 
give them, they will quickly begin to smell around and will get a bite 
of the apple you chance to have in your pocket, if you do not look out. 

Ponies require about 3,500 pounds of hay in a year. Oats, two 
quarts, and wheat bran one quart mixed together is a good feed for 
a pony for one day. Also give him a little salt and charcoal mixed 
together and put in a box, nailed to the side of the stall, where he can 
help himself. Do not feed green grass, unless well cured, while 
feeding dry grain and dry hay, as you often bring on colic by so 
doing. A small quantity of finely sliced carrots is good to feed at 
times. Sods, cut in the fall, about one inch thick, and put in the barn, 
are good to be placed, a little at a time, in the stall in winter, where 
the pony can nibble at leisure. 

Inspire Your Boys and Girls For Right Farming. 

In this way you encourage your children to do that which they 
like to do, at an early age, and thus help out the normal inclination 
toward making an honest living. Don't discourage your boys, espe- 
cially, in any enthusiasm for any department of farm life. If the 
father talks about the farm as a place to get away from, if he dwells 
upon the easy life "those city fellows" have every time he comes 
back from a trip to town, his sons will be very likely to catch the 
same spirit and fail to see the possibilities of modern farming. The 
best sign of the times today for the farm life is that the boys and girls 
who go to our agricultural colleges go back to the farm when they 
graduate. The farm, its fields and its livestock, its crops and its 
fruits have to them become great laboratories for study and for a 
life of pleasurable activity. Give your boys and girls the right enthu- 
siasm for country life even if you cannot give them a course at an 
agricultural college. But give them the latter if you can possibly 
manage it. And when they come back from it, don't criticize or 
hamper their new-fangled ways of farming. Your children can 
always teach you something new if they are wide awake bovs and 
girls. ' , 

Therefore don't always expect them to look at life as vou looked 
at it when you were young. The world is moving faster and faster. 
and the present generation is a century ahead of the days of the Civil 
War. Do your very best to look at life from the viewpoint of this 



58 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Twentieth century — for this is to be the century of the greatest agri- 
cultural advance that the world has ever known. That intelligent 
farming pays and pays well is evidenced by such instances as the 
following: 

"Twelve years ago W. B. Williams secured a homestead of 160 
acres from one of the first settlers in that district (Yakima). At the 
time such claims were selling at $250 to $500. The land was left in 
sagebrush until three years ago, when it was cleared and planted. 
There are at present 80 acres alfalfa, 35 acres in clover, 22 acres in 
orchard of pears, apples, peaches and cherries, and one acre in grapes. 
An offer of $400 an acre has been refused for a portion of this farm. 
Hay has been the money producer on that Kennewick place. The 
total yield for the last season was between 600 and 700 tons. Tim- 
othy gave a return of six tons to the acre. That hay is in demand at 
$15 a ton. Mixed clover and timothy sell at the farm for $15 a ton. 
Alfalfa is the standard crop and ranges about $10 or more a ton. It 
is easy to figure out how that farm is worth $50,000. It was only a 
desert four years ago. The crops have paid the first cost of the land 
and water, fencing and improving, and left the land complete to the 
owner. Next year the orchard will begin showing results. — Seattle 
Post-Intelligencer of 1909." 

Get as many books and magazines as you can for the home read- 
ing table. In these days of 10-cent periodicals — and even good 5-cent 
ones — a few dollars will go far toward keeping the boys and girls at 
home. Give them games for indoor and out. Entertain their friends, 
or let them entertain them. Talk farming intelligently and cheer- 
fully before these different groups of young people, and encourage 
in every way a sane and progressive spirit of co-operation in country 
life among practical farmers. In this present century your children 
must fight their way and bring the farmer's world closer to the gates 
of many avenues of culture and refinement that now seem distant. 
Only organize ; the family first, the neighborhood later, the county 
next, and finally the state, and you will secure a mighty agricultural 
uplift that will fill our senates with as many or more farmers than 
there are lawyers at present. 

Let me add here, if you want to make the most of your neigh- 
borhood and its chances of co-operative life, speak well of all, espe- 
cially of women. I knew a young man of fine education who was a 
candidate for superintendent of schools for his district. The opposi- 
tion candidate was a woman of ability and brains. The district com- 
prised two large counties with a decided Republican majority. The 
man was the nominee of that party and his chances for election were 
practically sure until he lost them by one foolish speech. He called 
at a house, during his electioneering campaign, where a woman was 
washing. "There," he said to one of the party, "that is the place 
for women— at the washtub." Very likely the young man only 
meant that home duties should occupy women, but the speech went 
like wildfire over the counties, and he lost the election. 



O W N Y O U R F A R M 59 

A Fresh Air Outing, 
The time is coming- when hundreds of thousands of city people 
will be living in the country to breathe God's pure air. My city 
friends, there is nothing that can surpass the well-kept farm for a 
home. From its beautiful lawns, where flowers shed perfume, to its 
orchards of trees and vines loaded with rainbow colored fruits hang- 
ing on the branches and vines in abundant reward for the summer's 
sunshine, the farm is the fulfilment of what the garden of Eden first 
promised to man and woman — a home for the shelter of the family 
life. I often think of the children of New York City to whom I 
gave the freedom of my orchards on the occasion of a "Fresh Air 
Outing." The children from 6 to 8 years old were stationed in the 
neighborhood of my New York farm in the center of New York state 
— and some seventy-five of them came, at difterent times, in small 
parties, to eat apples from my trees during their three weeks' outing. 
Like colts turned loose they frisked around what was a paradise to 
them in the time of apple feasts. When they left, the children gave 
me three good rousing cheers, and the girls took off their bonnets 
to match the boys' dofifed caps and hats. Roaming over the broad 
acres and through the evergreen forests mixed with the giant sugar 
maple they spent hours of happiness. They got more of the joy of 
"living on the farm" than many regular country dwellers could who 
are just farming to live. Many of them had never seen apples under 
a tree before and did not know whether they grew on trees or bushes. 
The apples had ripened and dropped to the ground where good and 
poor lay together — many bushels of them. There was a great scram- 
bling among the children and the excitement was catching. Filling 
their dress skirts and coats with all they could carry the girls and 
boys said they should carry as many as they could "home to mother," 
remembering that "mother" always took home something for them 
when away. 



CHAPTER VI 

Farm Builaings 

UPON the hill the white house stands. 
The maple grove and fountain ; 
The green hillside and meadow lands, 
And distant sunset mountain. 
The sunny slope, the rock, the tree, 
Where childhood freely wandered ; 
The apple bloom and humming bee. 
Past scenes now often pondered. 
The orchard near, where oft I strayed, 
With father, gathering apples. 
And homeward drove the lowing herd. 
The red cows and the dapples. 
I see again the cider-mill, 
The juicy apples grinding; 
The nest-of eggs beneath the sill, 
Our mother praised for finding. 
The half-way rock, moss-grown and old, 
The guinea's nest beside it — 
Her foolish mate the secret told, 
While she strove well to hide it. 
I call to mind the soft spring days. 
The hillside and the mowing, 
The may-flowers by the wooded ways 
Their pretty faces showing. 
I hear the blackbird's roundelay, 
The sparrow's joyous trilling: 
The woodland rill sings on its way. 
My heart with music filling. 
The bird, the flower, the forest tree, 
The squirrel in the wildwood ; 
In memory's glass again I see. 
As once I saw in childhood. 

— Author Unknown. 

THE farm home is too apt to be forbidding or unattractive in ap- 
pearance. In traveling about the States and Canada I have 
seen buildings painted either in gloomy or in too gaudy colors. 
It costs no more to paint a house in cream-white or neutral 
tints of gray-green or brown that will blend with the natural colors of 
fields and woods than it does to daub it in bright reds, or pinks, or 
vivid greens. 

Select or make a slight slope and put your house upon it. If the 
slope has a grove of trees as a wind-break from the prevailing winds. 




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FARM BUILDINGS 61 

so much the better. If not, then to plant a large thick grove of elm 
trees, soft maple, or similar hardy native trees will pay better than 
any grain crop that can be raised on the farm. Such a grove is a very 
profitable shelter for the stock-barn also. Mulch heavily with straw 
when you plant the young trees, and continue this for four or five 
years and you will soon have a fine acreage of young forest. 

House Plans. 

Plan your house so that you can begin with a small building at 
first, and add to it later on. Build with an eye first to kitchen con- 
veniences for your wife, as a large share of her days will be spent in 
that room. Have also a good sized family room for yourselves and 
your friends and two good, airy sleeping rooms to begin with. Such 
a cottage with the necessary closets and pantry will make you a com- 
fortable home for a few years. A house like this can be built at a 
very moderate expense by cutting out all but the necessities of good 
construction, and by putting your own labor into it, with the aid and 
supervision of a good carpenter. What you build, build well and for 
the future. Then you will be ready to turn your attention to other 
matters, feeling that your wife and growing family are comfortably 
(if not elegantly) housed. 

Make your own drawings, to the scale of one-fourth of an inch to 
one foot. Decide on the studding thickness and add one inch for lath 
and plaster on each side of partitions ; and one inch for sheathing and 
for siding on the outside walls. The nearer a house is to a rectangle 
or a square the cheaper and more solid it will be. Submit your plan 
to an architect and get his advice. If you can possibly do so let him 
make you working drawings and prepare the bill of materials. But 
be your own boss, even if you let the contract for all or part of the 
building. Then you can reject material not up to contract. By a 
little attention to details and only a slight additional expense the 
building of a simple house may be made artistic and attractive. The 
foundation can be quite high, at least two feet above the ground, 
and the stones can easily have a rock face put upon them by a ham- 
mer and chisel. If it is not possible to afiford a roofed porch on your 
house, or if you wish to get all the sunlight you can in your home, a 
well built and wide foundation porch floor on the front or the front 
and sides of a house need have only a pergola top and columns. On 
these columns climbing vines can be trained, as one's taste or purse 
dictates. 

An open fireplace is the ideal ventilator, and where timber is on 
the farm, is one of the cheapest ways of heating rooms in all but 
below zero weather. The writer knows of a case where, for twenty- 
five years, no difficulty was met with in heating a living room by a 
small fireplace every month in the year that a fire was necessary, 
except January and February, and this in Minnesota. Cannel coal 
was burned here, but only because it was cheaper than wood. Dry 
wood would have done as well. But you must have a good chimney. 



62 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Cellar and Cistern. 

The cellar of such a home should be made the full size of the house. 
Don't save on your foundations. Let the foundation walls go to the 
bottom, and in order to keep the cellar perfectly drained, lay the first 
course of hollow tiles, put in end to end. On the lowest side lay a 
tile drain to connect. Cement floors and cement walls (if you can 
afiford this last expense) will give you a cellar that will outlast any 
improvements you may add to your superstructure as the years go by. 
A few inches of cement will answer all purposes as to thickness. 

You will want a cistern and this should be planned large enough 
to meet all future needs until you can put in your own water sys- 
tem. If a part of your cellar is set off for a cistern and cemented, you 
can plan your foundation with that end in view, extending a corner 
of it out for that portion of the cistern into which the rain pipe will 
flow. The part of the cistern under the house should have a filter 
wall between it and the inlet portion. This will give you pure soft 
water for domestic use, which can be used for drinking purposes, also, 
until such time as you can install a safe water system. 

Arrange your cellar also for a furnace, even if you do not intro- 
duce one for a time, and see that your chimney details are built for 
that purpose. The furnace room can be used for storing wood and 
for a vegetable cellar, also temporarily. Let this room be planned, 
if possible, so that it is next to the cistern compartment, in 
order to temper the air better. Very few farmers as yet have their 
own ice house, so that the cellar will have to do duty for fruit, milk, 
butter and all food that must be kept at a low temperature. This is 
a poor method for saving labor, but for the young farmer and his 
wife, who too seldom remember that their strength is often their only 
capital, it is the favorite way. Therefore, partition off a room near 
the cellar stairs for this use. You will want a laundry later on. See 
that a place for that is included in your cellar plans. 

A well planned cellar, therefore, is the first need of your house. 
When you have fully satisfied yourself that your basement floor will 
be equal to the demands of a better style of living than you can now 
afford, and perhaps cannot afford for a good many years, it will be 
time to think about the floors above. 

Wood being still the cheapest building material, you will prob- 
ably build of wood. It will not be necessary at first to complete your 
second story, as all the rooms I have mentioned as necessary can be 
planned for the first floor. Later the two bedrooms can be converted 
into dining room and large pantry if properly planned with that idea 
in mind, and the sleeping rooms will then go on the second floor. 
With this simple home in which to start, even the farmer who goes 
into debt for his farm can feel that he is ready for the future and 
comfortable for the present. Such extra expenses as are involved by 
porches, a heating and lighting system (an acetylene gas system 
can be installed at small cost for lighting), a laundry in the cellar, 
and a water plant for all the farm buildings can be undertaken later. 



FARM BUILDINGS 63 

Stone Construction. 

However, these suggestions are for that large body of farmers 
who must study economy in every way when starting out. There 
are other ways of building farm houses. An authority on farm 
building advises stone houses for the farm, even at first, and declares 
that, though stone houses cost a little more, they are the cheapest 
and best in the end. I give his directions for building such a house 
as they were written out for this work. Of course cement could be 
used instead of stone, but cement construction is still in its infancy, 
and improved methods, together with increased competition, will 
probably decrease the cost of cement work as time goes on. 

"Stone houses and stone barns are the best kind of farm build- 
ings, if built right. The walls should be from eight inches to two feet 
thick. No stone should go through the wall above ground. The 
house should have an air chamber from four to six inches inside of 
the wall, with studding for this air chamber of two by six. This 
leaves the space between the stone walls and the lath and plastering 
six inches so that no dampness from the stone wall will ever afifect 
the lath and plastering. The air chamber can be any width desired, 
of course. If the house is built with two air chambers and a brick 
lining, it will be still warmer. In this case the outside stone wall 
should be from 10 to 12 inches thick, and the inside wall should be 
faced up with a brick wall 5 or 6 inches thick, with a half inch air 
chamber between the two walls. There should be another air cham- 
ber between the brick wall and the lath and plaster." 

Such a house will cost 20 per cent more to build than a frame 
house, but it will be much easier to warm and will cost much less to 
keep in repair. Where the stone is to be found on the farm in the 
shape of large boulders or rocks, these make the best of material for 
stone construction when broken and laid with the round side out. 
Or they can be used for the lower story with cement or frame for the 
second story. Not half enough use is made by many farmers of the 
materials they have to their hand on their own acres. Such farmers 
are often the ones that are always complaining about there being 
nothing in farming. 

Sanitation and Beauty. 

After the house is built, however, with all due care to sanitation, 
light, sunshine, heating and ventilation, it will need just as much 
care to keep it sanitary. One of the first needs of good housekeep- 
ing is to keep the cellar aired thoroughly, and the soil sweet around 
the house, especially near the fresh air intake to the furnace. Dish- 
water or slops of any sort should never be thrown around the door- 
way. They are very useful for occasional applications to the flower 
and fruit garden, but are not meant for daily watering of. your front 
or back yard. The soil will become sour and ill-smelling, and need 
applications of lime to make it sanitary again. 

Every farm house can have a lawn, also, and some homelike ar- 
rangement of vines, flowers and shrubs. The fences can be kept up, 
the buildings be painted, and the whole appearance of the place be 



64 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FAR. MING 

that of the home of a man who owns his farm and expects to live 
there in contentment, and with business foresight and energy is im- 
proving his home surroundings as fast as his means will permit. 

Barn Buildings. 

The most important features to consider in building a barn are 
light, ventilation, temperature and stall conveniences. The plans giv- 
en here all contemplate some adequate system of ventilation. One 
method, very simple, is to make a continuous air shaft by boarding in 
tightly between two of the studding up to the plate, and from the 
plate up box in until the rafters are reached. From this point board 
in between two rafters, the same as for the studding. Another meth- 
od is to construct an air-tight shaft from near the floor to the top of 
the barn — only be sure it is air-tight. 

Following is the plan of a serviceable barn which can be built 
largely by the work of the farmer, and for very little money, espe- 
cially if there are stones on the land for the foundation. Dimensions, 
37x34, 12 feet at the eaves, 29^/2 to the peak. The loft is supported 
by sixteen 8x8 posts, if of sawn lumber. The roof has eight 6x6 
purline posts. After the frame is built the stalls can be built from 
time to time. There are four horse stalls in front on the first floor, 
arranged two on each side of the double doors, with small doors open- 
ing out. The cross-passage is behind the stalls, and in front of the 
mangers, as all stock faces in. The three double cow stalls are on 
the right at the rear of the barn ; while on the left at the rear is a 
shed with one side left entirely open into the yard. The granary and 
harness room are between this open shed and the passage behind the 
stalls. There is one window on the left and two on the right side. 
The space down the center should be 12x37 feet. The flooring of the 
second story can be added as desired, as ample room is left for ac- 
commodating from 20 to 25 tons of hay, and windows can be added 
in the gable where an opening 10x12 feet is left for pitching in hay. 

The small doors for stalls are built in two sections. The upper 
section can thus be thrown open and take the place of a window. 
All the stock can be fed from the central floor, as the mangers all 
face inward. If the farm is to be largely a sheep or a cattle farm, 
the entire left side can be left open, making a shed 37x11 feet, with 
feed racks inside. This plan is simple and substantial and admits 
of additions and changes such as time may demand. Drainage, ex- 
posure, yard conveniences and the water supply being satisfactory, 
this barn offers many advantages to the farmer of small means, and 
few defects. Its chief defect is neither scarcity of light nor of venti- 
lation, but the fact that all the stock face inward. This is convenient 
for feeding, but is wasteful of manure values as well as of time in 
removing the manure. 

Such a barn would probably have only a dirt floor at first, but a 
dirt floor may be made quite satisfactory by setting a row of 2x6 at 
each edge of the gutter and nailing securely to strong stakes driven 
down so as to hold the joist up edgewise. Under the cows' hind 
feet place a two-inch plank twelve or fourteen inches wide and fill 



FARM BUILDINGS 65 

up in front of it with earth stamped solid, spiking the plank to the 
2x6 at edge of gutter. 

Bed heavily with straw or hay ; placing the fine short straw 
back under the cows' hind feet. The cows that are kept on a grain 
farm ought surely to have plenty of bedding if some lunatic does not 
set fire to all the straw piles. A burning straw pile is not a beacon 
of first class, progressive farming, to me at least, though it may be 
to some others. 

I do not advocate dirt floors for cattle ; remember I only say that 
until you can afford a cement floor, with gutters (the cement over- 
laid with planking), a dirt floor can be made and kept very clean by 
the above method and the use of plenty of straw. 

Stone Barns. 

A stone barn can be built on about the same plan as a house. 
There are several good ways of building a stone or cement barn. A 
very fine site for a barn is upon a rise of land facing the south or 
east. Such a barn, however, should not usurp the place where the 
home is to be built. Nor should it be built so that the house will get 
either drainage or odors from the barn. In such a barn, which will 
belong to the so-called basement type, the back and rear ends of the 
sides will be below ground four or five feet. The front will face the 
light, enabling the stock to face toward the outside, which gives them 
better light and ventilation. The windows should be large and from 
six to eight feet apart. They may swing in from the top, covering 
the open spaces below by triangles of wood when necessary. This 
gives ventilation without draft. 

The front of the building should be sheathed with well seasoned 
lumber, both inside and out, the outside being good matched siding. 
The stock department will be below with two sets of doors for 
winter use where the stock go in and out. The floors for the stalls 
should be of cement covered with planks and the stable wide enough 
to drive a team and wagon behind the stock. Use bedding enough to 
take up all liquid manure. This must be removed every day. 

Another method of building stone barns is to build on level ground, 
making the sides of stone and the gable ends of lumber. The stone 
sides should be studded inside of the wall, clear up to the plate, with 
2x4's, leaving an air chamber four inches in width. Board the stud- 
ding up to the plate on the inside. The windows are arranged the 
same as in the other barn. 

Good Ventilation. 

It is as necessary to ventilate stables, especially stables for dairy 
cows, as it is to ventilate the farm house. A system outlined by a 
Canadian official of the department of agriculture, while* not promis- 
ing perfect results, is worth heeding for its suggestions. Mr. A. P. 
Ketchen said, at a recent winter fair: 

"The requirements of a good system of ventilation are: (1) A 
constant change of air in the stable. (2) The introduction and dis- 
tribution of fresh air without drafts. (3) The liberation of the fresh 



66 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

air at the window near the heads of the cattle in such a manner that 
they may breathe it before it is diluted with foul gases. (4) The 
removal of foul air without condensation and consequent dripping. 

"To provide for the fresh air inlet, the floor of the feeding alley 
is elevated twelve inches above the level of the stalls. The inlet 
may consist of a ten inch tile, or a wooden box, about ten inches 
square, running under the floor the whole length of the feeding alley. 
This will admit enough fresh air for fifteen cattle ; if more are to be 
supplied a conduit placed on each side of the feeding alley will be 
generally sufficient. The main inlet is tapped opposite each pair of 
cattle by the distributing pipes. These lead into the mangers and 
are placed close against the parting blocks, their open ends being pre- 
vented from plugging with dirt by a leather flap, or some other de- 
vice. The foul air is carried off by means of ventilating shafts, lead- 
ing from the ceiling of the stable out through the roof. Most farm- 
ers now run the purline post straight from the floor to the purline. 
Beside these posts is a very convenient place for the ventilating flues, 
they are out of the way, and they are not so readily chilled as when 
placed against the side of the barn. Excessive chilling of these foul 
air outlets not only reduces the convection current, but condenses 
moisture, causing it to drip. 

These foul air outlets should be of good size, and should extend 
well up beyond the ridge of the barn. If they are not carried far 
enough above the roof, the current will often be in the wrong direc- 
tion and instead of acting as outlets, the wind will sometimes force 
a strong draft of cold air down onto the backs of the cattle; just as 
a chimney that is too short will sometimes cause a stove to smoke. 

It will be seen by this method, the fresh air is admitted, as in 
the furnace, below the heating area ; it is distributed evenly and 
without drafts; it is liberated at the heads of the cattle, giving them 
a chance to use it before it has been diluted with the poisonous gases 
of the stable; as it is heated by inhalation, and by the heat radiating 
from the bodies of the animals, convection currents are sent up to- 
wards the ceiling, and out through the foul air shafts. This system 
is automatic in its action, the more stock in the stable, the stronger 
the convection current, and the more fresh air introduced." 

Near Monticello, Minnesota, a unique barn with many practical 
advantages has been built. The work was done chiefly by the farmer 
and his sons. The frame is all made of tamarack poles blazed and 
straightened on one side. The barn is 34x100, has sixteen-foot posts 
and a basement eight feet high. It is built on a four-foot slope and 
the upper side is graded high enough to permit driving into the baf-n. 
There is a driveway lengthwise through the middle of the basement. 
The cattle face toward the walls, with feeding alleys between the 
mangers and the walls. 

The grain bins are above, with spouts leading to the alleys be- 
low. The manure is thrown into a wagon or sled and hauled direct 
to the field. 

During the first of the winter when the barn is filled with hay 
and fodder, the beddins: can be hauled into the basement and scat- 



F A R M B U I L D I N G S 67 

tered where wanted, but later it is stored overhead and thrown 
through chutes into the driveway. 

Lime should be freely used in all stock barns, for whitewashing 
etc. All the stalls should be gone over about twice a year and also 
the lime should be used freely and often on the stable floors. It 
makes a fine cleanser and keeps the barnyards in a healthy condi- 
tion, acting as a disinfectant. 

Sheep Barns. 

All sheep barns should be lighted with large windows on the 
southeast and west, so as to let in plenty of sun. Feed racks are nec- 
essary in all stock barns for feeding in bad weather. All the doors 
should fit well and close firmly. In a recent issue of a Minnesota 
farm journal I found the following description of a practical sheep 
barn which is so good that I have copied it here : 

"This sheep barn I have used for twelve- years, and it is good 
for fifteen or twenty more. We have no sills and no rafters. Every 
eight feet there is a stringer 2x8 running the length of roof on each 
side spiked to top of manger and roof support. We set fence posts 
for side walls about one foot in ground, four feet apart. On top of 
posts we spike double plate of 2x4, for the manger and roof sup- 
ports we use 4x4, every eight feet collar joist 2x6. Roof is boarded 
up and down with wide boards batted with six-inch fencing sided 
with sidelap. 

"This makes the interior of barn in one room 26x80 with no 
posts in the way of stock. Sheep are fed entirely in yard and al- 
lowed to go in barn at will. 

"I have a flock of Shropshires, about 400. Did not lose one 
last winter. 

"We have double doors on track and rollers. We drive through 
with wagon to clean out. 

"Total cost of lumber was $125 when lumber was cheap. Would 
cost nearly $250 now. 

"You will notice that it would make a fine machine shed. I am 
sure if the farmers of Minnesota could realize they could build such 
a barn, it would be a great inducement for them to engage in sheep 
raising." 

Machine Shed. 

What this stockman says about a storage place for machinery re- 
minds me how often protection for farm machinery is lacking around 
farm buildings. If you have ever tried to use rusty tools — say a 
rusty plow — you would say that unhoused farm tools are true signs 
of a "no count" farmer. There may have been enough money to buy 
machinery in the first place, but will there be any to. replace the 
tools made worthless by such shiftless farming? 

If the expense of a wooden shed cannot be afforded, a shed 
made from straw piles is easily and cheaply constructed. One that 
will house all the farm machinery of a moderate-sized farm can be 
made by setting a few posts firmly in the ground, and on the top of 
these spiking strong plates. Place some poles on top of the plates 



68 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

and on these lay a few boards or planks. Stack your loads of grain 
near the shed and the straw can then be readily piled on the shed roof 
and spread around on three sides. Here you can house all your ma- 
chinery as soon as harvest is over. 

If timber is not handy for this shed frame, posts and woven wire 
will make a roof frame. Have this frame ready before the threshing 
machine comes, and then thresh a covering of straw ten or twelve 
feet deep upon the roof, letting it run over on three sides, and leaving 
the opening toward the best sheltered end. Such a shed can be used 
for a stock shelter, and for many other things. By this method in- 
stead of destroying the straw pile by burning, you are making use of 
it to the best advantage. 

Corn Crib and Ice House. 

In building corn-cribs the double crib, with a covered driveway 
between the sections, will give a cheap and most serviceable building, 
because the driveway furnishes shelter for wagons, whether full of 
corn or grain, or empty. Set the cribs north and south so that they 
will get plenty of sunshine and wind. The cribs ought each to be 
about seven feet wide at base, slanting outward on the weather side 
about a foot. Ten feet must be left for driveways. A quarter inch 
mesh wire netting tacked over the floor and sides will keep mice 
away from the corn. Eight feet is a good height for poles. 

"Make the floors strong and smooth, using good sills and joist. 
The studding and rafters should be of 2x4 pine or hemlock placed two 
feet apart. The side walls are best when covered with a good quality 
of dressed 1x4 fencing, with a space of one and one-half or two 
inches between each board for the free circulation of air through 
the mass of corn. The walls of the crib may be covered more cheap- 
ly, and at the same time secure better ventilation, by using a stor- 
age netting made of No. 14 or 16 wire with 2x2 or 2x4 meshes. Staple 
the wire firmly to the outside of the studding which will make a very 
safe, durable, and, at the same time, cheap and neat looking corn 
crib. The gables may be boarded with matched drop siding and the 
roof covered with the best cedar shingles. 

"Poles or planks should be spiked on the inside of the stud- 
ding to keep the corn cribs in an upright position. They are top- 
heavy when empty and often become badly out of shape or easily 
wrecked in heavy wind storms. The early husked or damp and wet 
corn may be greatly improved in quality if the crib is provided with a 
supply of strong poles, cut the proper length and ends sharpened to 
it between the outside doors and extend across the crib. These will 
support the corn at intervals as it settles, and thus form openings 
underneath the poles that make ideal ventilation through the mass 
of green corn." 

If there is a place near by where ice can be secured it would 
be very practical to build an ice house. It is possible to build one for 
$75.00. A six by ten foot house, built on a three foot foundation of 
rough stones or boulders, and with a drain pipe, can be made partly 
of old lumber. For outside walls use one-inch boards, seam stripped, 



F A R M B U 1 L D I N G S 69 

and for the inner one laths closely laid together. The space be- 
tween should be eight inches, packed closely with sawdust and shav- 
ings. Any of the cheaper roofing materials will make a good roof. 
Sanded tarpaper is sufficient. Build on a bank which slopes to the 
north if possible. The door can be arranged to fit in like a safe door. 

Sometimes an excavation is made in the side of a hill, and this is 
lined with posts set at frequent intervals upon which boards are 
nailed. Trenches for drains are made and the cakes of ice laid about 
ten inches apart; this space being filled with sawdust and crushed ice. 
When filled, about a foot of sawdust is piled on top and a one-sided 
slanting roof added. By co-operation among farmers such ice houses 
can be easily filled after January. A wood preservative or hot coal 
tar should be used for the wood. Have the house well ventilated. 

Another method of making an ice house is by excavating a small 
rise of ground near the house. A space about eight feet deep and 
twelve feet square is dug in the side of this rise and lined either with 
hay, or rough boards, with an air space between the boards and the 
earth walls. This will hold a store of ice sufficient for a season's use. 
The hay lining is the cheaper, but the board one is the best in the end. 
You can roof lightly or permanently as desired. But there should be 
earth on the top of the roof, and the entrance, dug through the side 
of the elevation, should have some sort of a door. 

Briefly, the important points in the construction of a cheap ice 
storage house are these : "It contains two rooms, one above the other. 
The upper is used for ice and the lower for fruit. Building the house 
against a side hill makes it easier to fill the ice room, and also in- 
creases the efficiency of the fruit room. The walls against the soil are 
preferably stone or brick; the other walls may be of wood, or all may 
be of wood. The wooden walls should contain one or more dead-air 
spaces, such as would be made by sheathing a 2 x 6-inch joist on both 
sides. These spaces may be filled with sawdust, hay, straw, leaves, 
excelsior or other material, but generally it is preferred to leave them 
empty. Below the ice floor is a sheet of galvanized iron or tin to 
catch the drip, and a pipe conducts it outside the building. The floor 
joist is not boarded next the wall, and the cold air settles down from 
the ice into the room below through the opening. The excess of 
moisture in the storage room is taken up with quicklime. Ventilation 
is secured at the top and from windows on the sides. Such a house, 
while of crude construction, is cheap and serviceable, but practicable 
only when ice is easily obtained." 

If you use steel roofing or corrugated iron for roofing on any of 
the farm buildings, do not leave it unpainted or it will rust out in a 
season. Put on a good coat of roof paint at the first and. then be sure 
to paint at least once in two years. As a roofing of general Satisfac- 
tion and utility I know of nothing that gives more permanent satis- 
faction for the amount expended, than cedar shingles. If the farmer 
can afford to have them treated with oil they will last practically a 
life-time. 



70 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

HOW TO BUILD A SILO. 

From "Garden and Farm Almanac", Doubleday, Page & Co. 

The earlier silos used in France and Germany were simply long 
trenches dug in the ground. Uncut green feed was stored in them 
usually and covered with a layer of straw and soil. The first silo in 
America, built on the modern plan, is supposed to have been con- 
structed in Mayland in 1876. During the period from 1880 to 1890 
there was much controversy on the question of whether or not a silo 
was really a paying investment for the farmer, and it was not until 
about 1890 that they were considered practical by the majority of 
people. Since that time large numbers have been built. 

Why Build a Silo. 

The silo enables us to preserve a greater quantity of the food ma- 
terials of the original fodder, for the feeding of farm animals than is 
possible by any other system of preservation now known. The 
necessary loss of nutrients incurred in the siloing process need not 
exceed 10 per cent., and by beginning to feed from the silo soon after 
it has been filled, the loss will be reduced to a minimum which may 
not be far from 5 per cent. In hay-making or field-curing of coarse 
fodders, there is an unavoidable loss of leaves and other tender parts, 
and in curing fodder corn there will be a fermentative loss of nearly 
10 per cent under the best of conditions, or about as much as is lost 
in the silo. The loss of dry matter will approach 25 per cent in 
ordinary farm practice and will even exceed this figure unless special 
precautions are taken in the handling of the fodder. 

Essentials of a Silo. 

The proper construction of the silo is of the greatest importance. 
If the sides are not made air-tight, too much air is admitted and the 
silage will spoil. If the walls are not perfectly rigid the pressure of 
the silage will cause them to spring out, thus allowing air to enter be- 
tween the silage and the wall, and again the result is decayed silage. 

As silage contains about 80 per cent water it is a very heavy 
feed to handle and as the feeding of silage is an everyday job during 
the whole winter and spring, and twice a day at that, the silo should 
be as handy to the manger as possible, and a cart should be provided 
in which to convey the silage. If the silo is inside the barn, the door 
to the silage chute should be kept closed to prevent the silage odors 
entering the barn at milking time, thus avoiding the possibility of 
their being absorbed by the milk. 

The first silos in this country were usually built inside the barn, 
and consequently the square form was commonly used in order to 
utilize the space more completely. The square silo has not proved 
satisfactory, however, as it is practically impossible to build this form 
so that the side walls will not spring out and allow the air to pass 
down between the silage and the wall which invariably results in 



FARM BUILDINGS 71 

the rotting of the silage. It has been thoroughly proven that the only 
correct form for a silo is round, because with this shape the walls can 
easily be constructed perfectly rigid. 

The essentials of a silo are an air-tight structure having per- 
fectly rigid walls. These essentials can best be obtained in the 
round wood silo plastered with cement. It has been definitely proven 
that the round silo is the only correct form. The wall can best be 
made strong and rigid by springing the lumber around horizontally 
as the enormous pressure can be resisted better and more economic- 
ally with the lineal strength of lumber than in any other way. The 
best method of making air-tight this rigid wooden silo is to lath and 
plaster it with good sand and Portland cement. A silo of this con- 
struction, which is 20 feet in diameter and 34^ feet deep, having a 
capacity of 228 tons, was built at the University of Illinois in the 
summer of 1903. The first silos of this kind built in the state, so far 
as known by the writer, were three erected by Mr. H. B. Gurler, of 
De Kalb in 1897. (This is the style of construction frequently re- 
ferred to as the Gurler silo.) These three silos have been filled every 
year and have given most excellent satisfaction. It seems probable 
that silos of this construction will not only preserve the silage per- 
fectly but will prove to be lasting as well as economical for most sec- 
tions of the state. As few silos of this type have yet been built in 
Illinois, a detailed description of the one at the University is given. 

The excavation and foundation were made by cutting a circle 20 
feet 10 inches in diameter and 4 feet deep, and laying up a four-inch 
brick wall against the clay. This wall was slushed in full on the back 
side with mortar so that every brick had a full bearing against the 
clay to resist the great outward pressure of the silage. Where the 
clay is solid a two-inch brick wall is quite sufficient. Three feet from 
the bottom and within one foot of the top of the ground the wall was 
thickened to eight inches and carried up six inches above the grade 
line, the top of the wall being reinforced with heavy wire. Where the 
grass is not kept down around the silo, the brick wall should be 
higher to protect the wood from dampness. 

When a silo is placed in the ground, unless there is a good 
natural drainage through the subsoil, tile must be laid to drain the 
bottom or difficultv is almost sure to be experienced with water in the 
pit. 

The sill was made of 2 x 4's cut into two-foot lengths ; these 
were thoroughly imbedded in mortar made of one part of Portland 
cement to two parts of sharp sand, and the entire foundation was 
plastered with a thin coat. 

The studs which were 16-foot 2 x 4's, were set on the sill and 
toe-nailed to it. A large post sixteen feet long was set in the ground 
in the center of the excavation, and boards extending from this to the 
studs about six feet above the foundation, held the studs perpen- 
dicular to this height. A half-inch board was then bent around the 
outside of the studs at this height and the studs were tacked to it as 
fast as they were plumbed. These boards held the studs perpendic- 
ularly and in a circle to a height of six feet. The lining, which was 



72 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

^ X 6 inches x 16 feet long, made by splitting common fencing with 
a saw, was put on the inside beginning at the bottom. The upper 
portions of the studs were then plumbed and held in place by pieces 
radiating from the post in the center and by boards sprung on the 
circumference of the silo. To insure uniform strength through the 
silo, care must be exercised to break joints when ceiling. 

Staging was carried up on the inside as fast as the ceiling. When 
the top of the first studs was reached, the upper studs were spiked to 
the sides of the lower, allowing them to lap two feet, and another 
section was plumbed. The ceiling was continued on the inside to 
within six inches of the top, and the plate, which consisted of 2x4's 
cut into two-foot lengths, was then spiked on top of the studs. 

On each side of the line of doorways were set 2 x 4's spiked to- 
gether to make 4 x 4's. These were placed so that the edge of the 
2x4's faced the doorways leaving the fiat side for the doors to rest 
against in resisting the pressure from the silage. In this way there 
was no crack through the 4 x 4's where the plaster and doors join. 

As the silo was partially cut in two on the side where the open- 
ings were left, it was necessary to reinforce it between the doors. 
The strongest, cheapest, and most satisfactory way to do this was 
to ceil that side of the silo with an extra thickness from the bottom 
to the top, using half-inch lumber the same as that with which the silo 
was lined. The doorways were of course, left in the middle of this 
extra ceiling and the spaces between the doors were thus covered with 
two thicknesses, with no broken joints on three studs so that all of the 
strain at the end of these boards should not come at one stud. These 
irregular ends were filled out with short pieces so that the edge of 
the extra thickness would come in a straight line. Since this inner 
ceiling left a jog of a half inch, the thick edge of common shingles 
was butted against the ends of the half-inch boards, thus running the 
extra thickness down to a feather-edge and making an apparently 
even surface on which to lath. 

The silo was then lathed with common four-foot lath, breaking 
joints and nailing the lath solid to the half-inch ceiling without fur- 
ring out. It is usually recommended in lathing silos that the edges of 
the lath be cut on a level so that when nailed to the wall a dovetailed 
joint is formed for the mortar, or that the lath be set out on furring 
strips so that the mortar may clinch behind the lath. Experience 
shows that this is entirely unnecessary. 

The plaster was made of one part Portland cement to two parts 
of good sharp sand. Two coats of this mortar were used making the 
plaster a full half-inch thick over the lath. The second coat extended 
continuously from the bottom of the brick work to the top of the silo, 
uniting the foundation and the superstructure and giving an air-tight 
wall for the entire silo. 

Four doors were made of two thicknesses of common flooring run 
in opposite directions with tar paper between. These doors are each 
20 inches wide, lYz feet high, and are four feet apart. 

Authorities on silo construction have erroneously stated that for 
silos 20 feet in diameter and 30 feet deep, three thicknesses of half- 



FARMBUILDINGS 73 

inch lumber are required to give sufficient strength. This silo is 30 
feet in height above the foundation and has not shown the slightest 
sign of giving in any particular. 

Theoretically the outside covering should be put on horizontally 
so that the strength of the material which forms the cover might add 
to the strength of the silo. There are, however, several practical diffi- 
culties in putting sheeting on in this manner. The lumber cannot 
be more than a half-inch thick and spring to a circle of twenty feet or 
less in diameter, and any siding as thin as this, which is carried in 
stock is practically clear lumber and necessarily high priced. Another 
difficulty is that the only half-inch stuff that can be purchased at the 
lumber yard, which will make a water-tight cover, is common house 
siding. This, in order to be sprung to a circle, must be rabbeted on 
the back side of the thick edge so as to fit over the thin edge of the 
board below and allow the siding to lie flat against the studs. Rab- 
beted siding cannot usually be obtained at a lumber yard and it is 
extra trouble and expense to have this work done at a mill. Another 
serious difficulty in putting the siding on horizontally is that at the 
end of each board there is a strong outward pull against the nail 
heads and as soon as the boards become slightly decayed at the ends 
they are likely to pull off over the nails. 

Owing to these objections and to the fact that it was our aim to 
use, as nearly as possible, lumber that is carried in stock by all lum- 
ber yards, it was decided to put hoops on the outside and build them 
up of the same half-inch material as the inside sheeting. This was 
done by using three thicknesses and breaking joints, thus making 
a strong six-inch hoop 1^ inches thick. Seven of these were placed 
around the silo between the doors to make a continuous even surface 
on which to nail the sheeting. The silo was sheeted up and down with 
common 1x12 barn boards, 14 and 16 feet long, and the cracks were 
covered with common three-inch battens. 

After the silo was completed a conical shingled roof was put on, a 
chute built over the doors through which the silage is thrown down, 
and the small space between the silo and the barn roofed over, con- 
necting the two. The silo was then completed ready for painting. 

The silo has been filled three times and the silage has kept per- 
fectly from the bottom to the top, even next the wall and against 
the doors. 

In order to preserve the silo in good condition it is absolutely nec- 
essary that the half-inch lumber with which the silo is ceiled be pro- 
tected from dampness. To this end the plaster must be of good 
quality and kept perfectly water-tight by cementing up any cracks 
that may appear, so that the wood shall receive no moisture from 
the silage. The wall must also be ventilated, for by allowing a free 
circulation of air between the sheeting and the lining the lumber will 
be kept dry. In this silo a two-inch space was left at the top above 
the plaster and below the plate. In this way the air was allowed free 
access to enter from the bottom, betw^een the outside covering and 
the inside lining, and pass into the silo through the openings at the 



74 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

top. These spaces were covered with heavy wire netting of one- 
third inch mesh to keep out rats and mice. 

The cost of this silo, which was 20 feet in diameter and 34^ 
feet deep, holding 228 tons, was $383 or $1.68 ton capacity. 

The expense of a silo will vary in different localities according 
to the price of labor and material. 

The number of tons of silage needed can be readily estimated 
from the size of the herd and the amount to be fed daily. Even 
where it is desired to feed as much silage as possible not more than 
40 pounds per cow should be fed daily. Silage will usually be needed 
about 200 days. Each cow should have an allowance then of 200 times 
40 pounds which is 8,000 pounds of silage, or four tons per cow for 
the year. A herd of ten cows will require a silo holding 40 tons; a 
herd of 30 cows, 120 tons ; 50 cows 200 tons ; and 100 cows 400 tons. 
Where young stock is raised an allowance should be made for them. 
From the amount of silage needed, the dimensions of a silo of the re- 
quired capacity may be determined from the table, which gives the 
capacity in tons of silos of different diameters and depths. These esti- 
mates apply to silos filled with well-matured corn that has been al- 
lowed to settle forty-eight hours and then refilled. It is evident that 
to get this rated capacity, a silo which had been filled rapidly must 
be refilled after settling forty-eight hours. 

In building a silo, the method of construction is more important 
than in the other farm buildings. From the very nature of things a 
silo is subjected to unusual conditions. The silage is packed in under 
pressure, consequently the side walls must be rigid. Then, too, in 
order to keep silage in good condition, it must be made sufficiently 
air-tight to prevent the silage from spoiling. While most farmers 
can construct an ordinary farm building that will answer all practi- 
cal purposes, in building silos the service of men who are thoroughly 
familiar with the use of tools and methods of construction is neces- 
sary. A plan definitely worked out is necessary also, because the silo 
is primarily the one farm structure in which mistakes must not occur, 
and the plan one which cannot be developed as the building goes on. 

Approximate Capacity in Tons of Cylindrical Silos of Different Diam- 
eters and Depths. Computed from King's Table. 
(The diameter is shown at the top of the columns and depth at the 

left.) 

Inside Diameter in Feet. 



epth. 


Ft. 10 


12 


14 


16 


18 


20 


22 


20 


26.2 


2>7.7 


51.2 


67. 


84.7 


104.6 


126.6 


21 


28.0 


40.3 


54.8 


71.6 


90.6 


111.8 


135.3 


22 


29.9 


43.0 


58.6 


76.5 


96.8 


119.6 


144.7 


23 


31.9 


45.9 


62.5 


81.6 


103.3 


127.5 


154.3 


24 


33.8 


48.7 


66.3 


86.6 


109.6 


135.3 


163.7 


25 


35.8 


51.6 


70.2 


89.6 


116.1 


143.3 


173.4 


26 


37.9 


54.7 


74.4 


97.2 


123.0 


151.0 


183.8 



F A R ^I B U I L D I N G S 75 



Depth, Ft 


. 10 


12 


14 


16 


18 


20 


22 


27 


40.1 


t^7j 


78.6 


102.6 


129.8 


160.3 


194.0 


28 


42.2 


60.8 


82.7 


108.1 


136.8 


168.9 


204.3 


29 


44.4 


63.9 


87.0 


113.7 


143.9 


177.6 


214.8 


30 


46.6 


67.2 


91.4 


119.4 


151.1 


186.6 


225.8 


31 


48.8 


70.3 


95.7 


124.9 


158.2 


195.2 


236.3 


7>2 


51.1 


73.6 


100.2 


130.9 


165.7 


204.6 


247.5 


2>Z 


53.4 


77.0 


104.8 


137.8 


173.2 


214.1 


258.7 


34 


55.8 


80.3 


109.3 


142.8 


180.8 


223.6 


270.0 


35 


58.2 


83.7 


114.0 


148.9 


188.3 


232.2 


281.5 


36 


60.6 


86.9 


118.3 


154.7 


196.3 


242.0 


292.1 


Z7 


63.1 


90.4 


123.1 


160.8 


204.3 


251.9 


303.9 


38 


65.5 


94.0 


127.9 


167.0 


212.4 


261.9 


315.9 


39 


67.9 


97.3 


132.8 


173.5 


220.6 


272.0 


328.1 


40 


70.3 


101.1 


137.8 


180.0 


228.9 


280.2 


340.4 



Cost of Filling a Silo. 
The cost of filling a silo has been carefully worked out at the 
Illinois Experiment Station from records kept on nineteen farms. 
It ranges from forty cents to seventy-six cents per ton, the average 
being fifty-six cents. The variation was due to distance of hauling 
and the degree of system by which the work was done. 

How to Protect Buildings from Lightning. 

From Garden and Farm Alniaiiae— Doubleday, Page ct Co. 

The protection of farm buildings from lightning is a different 
matter from what it used to be considered. Luckily the changes that 
have come about in our knowledge are such that the expense of pro- 
viding protection for a set of buildings is much less than it was under 
the old system. 

The principal change is the substitution of iron for copper in the 
conductors. Since copper is so much better a conductor of electricity 
than iron, it was always supposed to be necessary to use heavy copper 
cable in lightning conductors. But experiments have proved that iron 
will serve the purpose just as well and is safer, owing to the fact that 
there is less danger of setting fire to the building in the momentary 
heat of the lightning discharge. 

To equip a farm building with lightning rods, the following ma- 
terial should be provided. First, a quantity of No. 3 double gal- 
vanized iron wire. Enough of this should be on hand to provide a 
cable running the length of the roof of the building and at least two 
cables running from the ridge of the roof to the ground, one on each 
side of the building. Also enough to provide for the pieces of upright 
wire that should project into the air from the ridge of the roof, every 
six or eight yards. No. 3 wire is approximately one-quarter of an 
inch in diameter. Second, a supply of heavy galvanized iron staples. 
Third, connecting tees of the proper size to unite sections of one- 
quarter inch wire. Fourth, enough aluminum paint to coat the wire 
and the tees thoroughly. 

If the flexible iron cable can be secured instead of the solid iron, 



76 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

it will be found much easier to handle, since it can be shaped around 
chimneys or other bends more easily. Also it can be unwound a short 
distance back and thus made into good points for the sections that 
project into the air. 

No attempt should be made to insulate the iron from the building. 
This is entirely unnecessary. To erect the conductor all that is needed 
is to run a section of the cable along the ridge of the roof, fastening it 
in place with staples. At each end and at one or two places along 
the roof, depending on the length, tees should be inserted in the 
cable to hold the uprights. If there is a cupola or chimney on the 
building, one of the uprights should be run along this and project 
beyond the top of it. If solid iron is used the top of each upright 
should be filed down to a point. If the flexible cable is used, the wire 
should be unwound a few inches back from the end. It is not neces- 
sary that the uprights should project far above the main cable. Two 
and a half feet is enough. 

The lower ends of the cables that connect the ridge of the roof 
with the ground must be so placed as to reach moist earth in the 
shortest possible distance. The ground connection is best made by 
coiling the lower end of the vertical cable, giving it several turns and 
making a coil a foot or more in diameter, and then burying this coil 
deep enough in the ground to be in moist earth even in dry seasons. 

The number of vertical conductors necessary will depend on the 
length of the building. For most buildings one on each side will be 
enough, but for large barns there should be a vertical conductor on 
each side every twenty-five or thirty feet. 

Where the building is covered with tin or other material there 
is no need of running the cable along the ridge of the roof. All that 
is necessary is to provide vertical conductors carefully soldered to 
the middle of the roof and ending in moist earth as already described. 

All joints should be made tight so that they will not break apart 
or otherwise come loose. If there is a metallic water pipe running 
into the building, connections should be made between it and the 
vertical conductors, provided the lower end of the water pipe runs 
into moist earth. 

It is advisable to apply two coats of the aluminum paint, and to 
repaint the iron every two or three years in order to prevent rust. 

The Farm Water System. 

According to the prevailing idea the well of the farm house should 
never be dug in a ravine or low place, especially if this spot is a few 
feet lower than the barn or any place which may be a source of foul 
drainage. Authorities differ as to this, however, modern sanitation 
claiming that nearly all forms of bacterial or germ life exist in the 
upper twelve feet of the soil. If the subsoil is a sandy one the water 
that filters through the subsoil may usually be considered pure. 

However, the safest way to build any well is to have it water- 
tight and dig it twelve feet deeper than is necessary to strike water. 
Fill in the bottom with twelve feet of sand, and this will make a filter 
for the water which runs down the outside of the walls to find its 



F A R M B U I L D I N G S 11 

passage up through the sand. If your well is dug in gravel it is 
necessary to dig a much larger hole at first than you need and also 
to use an octagonal crib with smaller ones inside as you descend in 
digging to prevent the gravel sliding in. In case the water supply 
is in the barn the basins should be thoroughly cleaned once every 
two or three weeks. Then dip out all the water you can and dry well. 
When installing a barn water system avoid all the crooks and turns 
possible and use at least a one-inch pipe. It is a good plan to have 
your own plumbing tools for repairs and construction work of this 
sort. This will save you time and money, for with the tools it is 
quite simple to do most of the repairing yourself. The necessary tools 
include two pipe wrenches, a cutter, a vise and a set of dies. The vise 
and wrenches are tools in such great demand for general use that 
they are so much farm capital. 

System of Hog Farming. 

A system of hog farming which has been successfully worked 
out by an Illinois farmer, calls for four equal fields of 20 acres, fenced 
hog-tight by a five-foot woven wire fence with a barbed wire above it. 
The fields meet at the center, and here there is a well, a small feed 
yard for use in winter, and a shed for storing feeding troughs, etc., in 
the summer. Fifteen brood sows are kept. These raise eight pigs to 
the litter, once a year. These four fields are so rotated that one is in 
clover. This field is divided by a temporary wire fence into two parts, 
one of 12 acres and one of 8 acres. The yearlings, 120 in number, 
are turned into the twelve acres in early spring to stay there until 
time for marketing, in August. The cows and pigs go into the eight 
acre section until August. When the large hogs are sold the tem- 
porary fence comes down and the mothers and pigs have the run of 
the whole plot. During summer whatever grain is fed is given them 
near the shelters. When the ground gets muddy a new place is se- 
lected. In summer hogs are better off with only a ground floor to 
the hog-house. Movable houses that can be lifted off the floors are 
practical. Floors are necessary in winter when all the feeding should 
be done indoors. 

Fence Building. 

Choose your posts carefully when building a fence. Red cedar 
makes the most "durable post with the exception of cement. The 
high price of cedar posts makes them almost a prohibitive article in 
most localities. Cement posts can be made by the farmer or stock- 
man if sand can be had in the locality. They can be used either for 
wire or board fences. However, if you have any timber in your neigh- 
borhood the wooden post will suggest itself at once as the most eco- 
nomical. The corners are the most important part of any fence. Use 
large posts, set in holes that are at least four feet deep and three feet 
square, and anchor well. A combination of barb wire and wire net- 
ting makes a very good fence. Use the thirty-inch netting, with two 
wires above and one at the ground to keep the pigs from rooting 
under. When set the posts should stand at least four and a half 
feet high, or even five feet if much stock is kept. A good way to 



78 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

keep stock from using the gate post for rubbing against is to protect 
it by a barb wire stapled four feet from ground to gate. 

Concrete Walks. 

Permanent walks around the farm house and buildings are not 
such expensive improvements as many farmers think. Any man of 
ordinary common sense and attention to details can lay a concrete 
walk by following a few simple directions. He can lay his own con- 
crete foundation if he will. The tools needed are a box or a platform 
of smooth boards for the mortar, hoes and shovels, a spirit level, a 
trowel such as is used by plasterers, a maul for making foundations 
firm and an edger for striking off smooth surfaces. 

One part of cement to five parts of gravel is the formula for 
the foundation. Guide strips of 1x6 laths must be laid down by exact 
measurement to keep the walk to straight or regular lines. Mix the 
cement with the gravel while dry. Work it over and over many 
times and mix thoroughly before wetting. Then wet slowly while 
working and put it in place at a depth of about four inches, working 
fast so that the concrete will not set. As soon as it begins to set 
put on an inch of top layer made of two parts clean sand and one 
part cement. Rub this over and over with a trowel to get a smooth, 
hard finish, and keep it moist several days after it sets, using either 
wet sand and thick, or wet gunny sacks. For flooring for stables, 
dairies or other farm buildings, lay parallel guide strips of 2x6 straight 
scantlings about every three feet and lay the mixture in these belts to 
the same depth. As such floors should be laid with an eye to being 
washed, a fall of 1^ inch to every ten feet must be planned for. 

A cheaper cement can be made of flashed coal tar and sand, but 
it is more difficult to handle. The results are akin to asphalt. 



CHAPTER VII 
Pasture and Meadow 

STOCK should be allowed as large a run of good pasture as pos- 
sible and every live farmer expects to give more or less of his 
land up to pasture. But land suitable for crops ought not to 

be used for pasture, and modern farming, with the increasing 
practice of the soiling system, is learning how to utilize the waste 
farm lands for pasture land. 

If the soil of the intended pasture is poor it must be rid of weeds 
by mowing the annuals frequently during the summer and rooting 
out the perennials. Plow, fertilize heavily, reseed often and occa- 
sionally apply lime. Use a pasture mixture of a good many different 
kinds of grasses, as some grasses need plenty of time to reach their 
best estate and others come along quickly into service. 

Breaking on new prairie land varies according to the soil and 
climate. The general method calls for a light breaking of the soil as 
early as frost is out of the ground. As soon as the sod has rotted, 
disc and backset. This leaves good land in the best shape for wheat 
the next year. If the soil is very light and the land scrubby it is 
best to break deeper — three or four inches — and seed to a light crop 
of oats or flax. Scrub and brush must be removed before plowing, 
and be sure that shear and coulter are in good shape all the time. 
For backsetting, a sulky plow should be used with plenty of horse- 
power. On Canadian farm lands, cattle are often used for this work, 
either alone or with horses. Remove all stones, if possible, while 
breaking, so that you can leave a clear field behind for the backset- 
ting. Yet this is not generally done, farmers waiting for slack days. 
This necessitates going over the same ground again. 

Old highland pasture should be re-seeded with white clover and 
alsike clover, mixed with Kentucky blue grass and medium red 
clover, every six to seven years. Sow the seed in the winter, as fol- 
lows: Two quarts of white clover, two quarts of alsike or Swedish 
clover, four quarts of Kentucky blue grass and two quarts of red 
clover, all mixed together. Sow about eight to ten quarts to the acre 
before the barn yard manure or fertilizer is put upon the land. 
Spread from the load, fifteen to twenty-five loads of stable or barn- 
yard manure per acre are sufficient, and this can be put on in the 
winter after the seed has been sown. The old pasture should be pre- 
pared by being harrowed about two inches deep late in the fall, before 
sowing the seed. The fresh dirt, together with the top dressing of 
manure, will keep the roots from drying out. Pasture thus heavily 
top dressed in winter with barnyard manure will also produce feed 
in a long drought, early spring grass, and late fall pasture. The high 
lands are the best for dairying, and such lands, where the above plan 



80 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

is followed, will produce from two to three times the amount of 
pasture. 

In covering pastures with manure do so in the fall or early winter, 
or else very early in the spring. This conserves soil moisture and 
encourages th^ growth of grass. When such land is plowed for 
crops the gradual decay of manure and the residue from the sod will 
bring average soils into better condition and the crop will be in- 
creased more than by the direct use of manure upon grain land. The 
action of the grass roots upon the_ soil changes its physical composi- 
tion, making it darker in color, retaining more moisture and more 
responsive to sunlight. If the pasture has not produced much feed, 
sow a mixture to the acre of three pounds of alsike clover, two 
pounds of medium red and six pounds of timothy. Then top dress 
for the fall as directed. 

If your rainfall is not abundant, or if any special season is dry, 
don't pasture the hay fields too closely in the fall. The meadows go 
into the winter uncovered, and clover plants are likely to suffer. 
The next spring the grass will be slower in growth and your yield 
of hay much less. Some amount of pasturing can be done, but it must 
be so managed as not to allow close cropping over the whole field. 
On the whole, it is best not to pasture the first fall after seeding to 
clover or any grass. 

Clover and Cow Peas. 

Blue grass and white clover on permanent pastures are apt to 
make the soil sod bound, especially on hilly or stony land. To pre- 
vent this, mulch with the bottoms from the straw stack, or with ma- 
nure early in the spring. The stock will not feed then, but the field 
will be ready by August or September, and the output of the pas- 
ture will be doubled. 

In the northeastern part of Minnesota clover grows with great 
luxuriance, and as the line is followed down along the eastern border 
of the state clover remains a standard paying crop. In other sec- 
tions of the state, where it has been introduced with some difficulty, 
repeated crops prove that clover thrives on itself. Success in clover 
growing seems to depend upon persistence in growing stands year 
after year. 

Seed can be cut from alsike clover for two or three successive 
years, occasionally for a longer period. In some parts of the far 
west red clover lives many years, producing seed, if allowed to, every 
year. The small white clover also lives for a long period, producing 
seed every year. In the central and eastern states clover lasts longer, 
however, if it does not bear seed, as has been proven over and over 
again. 

Where clover cannot be grown to the profit of the land, cow- 
peas make a tolerably good substitute. But though cowpeas gather 
nitrogen, their roots are not so long as the clover roots, and there- 
fore they cannot bring up fertilizing material from the subsoil as 
the clover does. A deeply penetrating root like that of the mammoth 
clover enriches the subsoil and aids it in retaining moisture. 



PASTURE AND M E A D O W 81 

For cutting- cowpeas the attachment of a pea harvester to the 
cutting bar of a mower greatly helps the process. This little tool 
lifts up any forage lying on the ground so that the mower knife can 
work from the underside and cut clean. The cost is small and the 
help great, not only in harvesting more peas, but making the labor of 
bunching the peas less. 

Stock In Pasture. 

All good farmers agree that stock should never be turned out to 
pasture when there is no grass in the spring. A herd of cattle will 
do great damage in a few days by tramping the pastures and pack- 
ing the ground hard, thus destroying the grass roots ; then, as soon 
as the spring and June rains are over, there is no pasture for the 
dairy the rest of the season. The best pastures are those that are 
never plowed — if they are rightly cared for. The pasture should not 
be harrowed if the grass roots are thin. Sow very late in the fall or 
in winter up to the first of April. A good mixture to use is from four 
to six pounds of blue grass, red-top and white clover to the acre, and 
top-dress with all kinds of farm manure. I have top-dressed pastures 
with coarse barn-yard manure, and find that 10 acres so treated will 
produce far more than twenty left without this fertility added. 

Another reason why stock should not be turned out to pasture 
until there is a good growth of grass is that with scanty pasturage 
the stock are kept on their feet all day picking a few spears of grass. 
The best time for stock to feed is before the dew is off in the morn- 
ing. If you have not plenty of good spring pasturage, keep on with 
the winter rations for eight or ten days longer and remember that 
upland pasture is the best of all. Red-top, blue grass and white 
clover is the ideal combination for dairy pasturing, but medium red 
clover, timothy and June grass make also a fair pasture. 

Meadows. 

As to meadows, the best place for a permanent meadow is either 
on land too rocky for general tilling, on hillsides, or in lowlands 
that are likely to be swampy at times. The best time for preparing 
meadow land is after the early hay harvest is over, when a light 
spread of manure is good, and this followed by another during the 
early winter. If the grass sod is worn out, scratch the surface very 
early in the spring and re-seed. If you use only one kind of grass, 
August and September are the best months for sowing. One kind 
of grass for the permanent meadow is advised by many farmers. 
Clover, if added, is best sown in the spring. 

Some lands are more suitable for permanent meadow than a 
permanent pasture. Drained and well cured marshy and peaty soil 
often produces red-top, timothy and other kinds of hay in abundance. 
Such meadow lands should have some grass seed sown on the poorest 
parts, for instance, alsike clover sown early in March before the frost 
is out of the ground, and then manured later. These lands usuallv 
hold a good deal of water. If pastured, the trampings of the ani- 
mals cut the sod and destroy the grass roots. Yet, by proper treat- 



82 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

ment, many such peaty soils can be so cared for as to become valu- 
able hay lands. Follow the plan of feeding no stock on them, sow 
seed on the barest spots early in spring and dress heavily with ma- 
nure in the winter or fall. This will help to bring out the new grass 
roots. Don't cut these too closely, as a few inches of stubble will 
hold the snow and protect the grass. If you can get a second crop 
late in the summer, mow it and let it lay on the meadow and rot. 

An Eastern Meadow. 

One hay grower in the East,, who had the reputation of growing 
more hay to the acre than any man in the East — Mr. George Clark, 
of Connecticut, says that he prepared his soil so thoroughly that it 
was worked at least fifty times over before any seed was sown, work- 
ing very deeply at first, and afterward more lightly until every par- 
ticle was broken. Then the seed was sown lengthwise and crosswise 
twice, using fourteen quarts of timothy and the same of red-top to 
the acre. By thus going over and over the soil the plant food was 
made available at once and the soil so pulverized that seed would get 
lodgment immediately. This sowing brought Mr. Clark seven and 
three-fourths tons of hay to the acre, with two cuttings. If expensive 
clover seed is sown upon such a prepared soil none will be wasted in 
sowing. 

Timothy and clover may be sown on winter grain as soon as it 
comes oiT in the spring. After sowing put on a little drag and if 
the grain is drilled in, drag lengthwise of the drill enough to loosen 
the dirt and cover the seed. Use six to eight pounds of medium red 
clover seed per acre and six or seven pounds of timothy. If alsike 
clover is added the proportions might be changed to^four pounds of 
clover, three pounds of alsike and seven or eight pounds of timothy. 
If medium red clover alone is used, sow from eight to twelve quarts 
per acre, and the same of the mammoth clover. 

Alsike clover should always be sown with other grass seed and 
clover for hay or pasture. Sow the same number of pounds of seed 
in the spring seeding and drag the seed in. The best way to sow 
clover and timothy seed is always to sow it with a drill. 

Nurse Crops of Grain. 

When grass seed is sown with grain, especially spring grain, the 
quantity of grain should be from a third to one-half less where clover 
and other grasses are used. A thick seeding of grain is injurious to 
the young grass. If the weather is dry and hot in harvest time, often- 
times the grass is lost after the grain is cut. A thin sowing of grain 
is the best for a good stand of clover and for all kinds of grasses. In 
mild climates clover and other grasses can be sown in the latter part 
of August and up to September 20th with a nurse crop if the ground 
is plowed and put in first-class shape. Make a compact seed bed by 
fall harrowing this early fall plowing. No stock should be put on 
this and with this firm seed bed there will be no trouble from the 
freezing and loosening of the soil. 



PASTURE AND ALE A DOW 83 

Another good method is to seed on clean corn stubble without 
plowing-. A first-class seed bed may be made on this by disking or 
shovel plowing, after which clover can be sown with a nurse crop. 
If the intention is to do this, the greatest possible amount of stubble 
and aftergrowth should be left as winter protection. 

Remember that one acre of clover plowed under represents, in the 
soil fertility gained thus, ten tons of stable manure. The best time to 
sow crimson clover, which is to be turned under the following spring, 
is from late June to September. 

For sowing June clover about four quarts of clover seed to one 
of alsike clover and two of timothy makes a good mixture. If oats 
or barley are used with the clover, do not use too much. Barley or 
wheat are better than oats as they do not shade the ground so much, 
nor take up so much water. 

Seeding to Clover With Spring Grains, Such As Oats, Wheat, Barley, 

Etc. 

In the latter part of the June of 1906, the writer seeded a piece 
of sandy land for Hon. J. M. Hackney, of Hamline, Minn. The land 
had not been tilled for years and the vegetation on it consisted of 
weeds and native grass. These were all plowed under and the whole 
thoroughly harrowed. Seed was then mixed as follows : One bushel 
of oats, eight quarts of medium clover and six quarts of timothy seed. 
The mistake is usually made of putting in too much grain seed, there- 
by choking out or weakening the cover crops. In the above case, the 
summer following the hay crop was of the best. I presume that 95% 
of the losses are due to the use of too much seed grain. Often it 
comes up so densely that the young grasses are shaded and their vital- 
ity weakened so that when the grain is harvested and the grasses are 
exposed to the sun and dry winds they will perish. 

In seeding for hay or pasture a mixture of the varieties of clover 
and timothy is very good. The clovers improve the texture and fer- 
tility of the soil and also make excellent ha}^ besides being a fine pas- 
ture for honey bees. 

Cutting Clover. 

There are various opinions about cutting clover, but I prefer to 
cut when clover is in full bloom. It should be cut in the forenoon and 
raked up in the winrows and bunched or cocked the same afternoon. 
The natural moisture of clover or hay will not spoil it, but the water 
from rains and heavy dews does. All sorts of grasses should be cut 
and cured the same way for bright, sweet hay. If hay is fit to buy 
you can tell by tasting it. If not sweet don't buy it. 

The best hay for all kinds of stock is medium red clover. After 
an experience of thirty years in curing clover I find that clover hay 
should not be cured in the swath in the sun. The leaves are all lost 
and the more it is handled the poorer the hay is. The farmer who 
raises clover and corn successfully is the successful farmer. He will 
have plenty of the best fodder for his stock and his soil getting richer 
every year. I have often heard it said that a ration of clover hay with 



84 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

four quarts of oats would keep a horse in far better condition than 
eight quarts of oats and timothy hay. 

Hay should be stored in the barn thoroughly wilted, but with no 
water in it. A small quantity of water in a large hay mow will de- 
preciate the value of the whole mow for both feeding and market. 
The natural hay moisture never spoils it, however. 

Clover should not be left out in the field, for one rain on it de- 
preciates the feeding quality greatly. If it looks like rain, put it in the 
barn, even if quite damp. Sprinkle a little salt on it, and the hay will 
come out all right. If you have no salt handy, mix in good, fresh 
straw with it. More clover hay is spoiled by drying in the field than 
in any other way, for the leaves which are thus lost are the best part. 

The second cutting is good feed for hogs, mixed with roots and a 
little corn. But as clover hay contains a large per cent of protein, 
horses should not be heavily fed with it, especially when the hay is 
first ready for use. All stock eat it greedily and it must be used with 
caution. 

Cutting Timothy. 

Timothy should be cut as soon as the blow is ofif, and this should 
not dry in the swath. In good weather, when raked into winrows, 
it will dry and cure very fast. Stack as soon as possible and avoid a 
rain. One ton of early cut hay is worth two cut later for dairy pur- 
poses. Timothy is best cut before it blooms for cow fodder. In gen- 
eral, no hay should be left to lie in the sun. Oats cut green make 
good feed for the dairy cows. Cut just after the oats berry is past the 
milk form and just before the straw begins to turn yellow, and stack 
under cover as soon as possible. The hay caps now in use made of 
ducking are invaluable for rain or wind protection. With a few hun- 
dred of these caps a big crop of hay can be handled without any risk 
of damage from dew or rains. 

It must be remembered that the aroma from grass makes a part 
of its feeding value. When new mown hay lies and bleaches in the 
strong sunlight, the loss of color is accompanied by a loss of this 
aroma. Gathering it into cocks or bundles checks the loss of color 
and smell, and keeps the natural moisture in the hay. The hay 
"sweats" in the cock or barn, and this is just what it should do. 

Hay Heating. 

If you suspect that your hay is heating, which is generally made 
known by a certain peculiar smell, put a thermometer in any handy 
tube and push it down into the middle of the stack. If the record 
on the thermometer is at all doubtful pull the hay apart and let in 
the air. As this condition is supposed to come from too much mois- 
ture, the salt sprinkling method mentioned before, one pound of salt 
to one hundred pounds of hay, should be used on every load of hay 
that has to be hurried to cover before it is quite dry. Scatter on 
with care that too much is not given. Straw laid in layers between 
green hay is also recommended. Stock do not object to this at all, but 
eat the straw apparently with as much relish as if it were hay. 



PASTURE AND MEADOW 85 

Manure Spreaders. 

In spreading manure over meadows the use of a manure spreader 
does away with the need of any after attention. Summer manuring 
not only doubles the crop of grass, but it makes a second cutting of 
hay for the fall. Whether you manure broadcast from the wagon or 
by the spreader, do it as soon as the first hay harvest is off the fields. 
Spread the well rotted manure in moderate thickness, seeing to it 
that the poorest patches of stubble get attention first, if there is not 
enough fertilizer to cover the whole field. If you spread from the 
wagon go over afterwards with the harrow or brush in order to cover 
more evenly. The field will produce thicker sod, weeds will be 
crowded out, and the value of your meadow doubled in yield and dur- 
ability. 

In general, it may be said that the farmer will do well if instead 
of summer fallowing, he will raise more cultivated crops for fodder, 
and keep more live stock to increase the fertility. Forty acres seeded 
to brome grass for pasture, and maintained for four years, then plow- 
ed and cultivated to grain will yield two bushels where one grew 
before. Seed another forty in another part of the land and repeat 
the process. You will soon get returns from your live stock that will 
not mean a corresponding loss of soil fertility, as is the case where only 
grain growing is carried on. Many farmers who are short on pas- 
ture and long on stock will get rapid results by sowing together oats, 
medium red clover and alsike, 1^ bushels oats, 6 quarts clover and 5 
pounds alsike per acre. For loose, dry soils, this method is excellent. 

The following is a group of four mixtures for humid climates hav- 
ing severe winters and is taken from a Canadian farm paper: 

(A) 

Medium Red Clover 3 lbs, 

Kentucky Blue Grass 1 8 lbs. 

Orchard Grass 8 lbs. 

Smooth Brome Grass 10 lbs. 

(B) 

Medium Red Clover 2 lbs. 

White Clover 2 lbs. 

Meadow Fescue 5 lbs. 

Smooth Brome Grass 8 lbs. 

(C) For High, Rather Thin Soils. 

Mammoth Red Clover 3 lbs. 

Kentucky Blue Grass 8 lbs. 

Orchard Grass 8 lbs. 

Smooth Brome Grass 10 lbs. 

(D) For Low, Wet Lands. 

Alsike Clover 4 lbs. 

Red Top 6 lbs. 

Timothy 4 lbs. 

All the components of Mixture (A) start very early in the spring, 
and the clover and brome grass will remain green and continue to 
grow during quite dry weather. 



86 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

The following article on alfalfa was originally prepared for the "Garden and 
Farm Almanac," but by permission of the publishers of the Almanac, Doubleday, 
Page & Co., it is included here. 

How to Raise Alfalfa. 

One of the most frequent questions asked by correspondents of 
experiment stations throughout the country is how to raise alfalfa. 

The failures or partial failures that many farmers have experi- 
enced in their first attempts with this crop have deterred many from 
undertaking its cultivation. This is unfortunate, for alfalfa is one 
of the most valuable crops that has ever been introduced on American 
farms. 

As a matter of fact, the cultivation of alfalfa is not especially diffi- 
cult. It does require a certain amount of care in the preparation of 
a seedbed in getting- the crop started, etc., but these are no more than 
are required for any other crop. The difference lies in the fact that 
alfalfa is new to most farms and farmers, and many others have not 
become acquainted with its peculiarities. 

As to its value in most systems of farming there is no longer the 
slightest doubt. Its roots penetrate to great depths in the soil, thus 
serving the triple purpose of drawing on the deeper soil moisture, of 
gathering plant food from considerable depths and leaving parts of 
the same at the surface, and, finally, of opening up the soil to the 
depth of several feet. The tops constitute one of the most valuable 
forage crops that we know, and, finally, the whole plant belongs to the 
group that gathers a large part of its nitrogen from the air, storing 
it up in nodules on the roots. 

The Best Kinds of Soil. 

The popular impression that alfalfa can be grown only on rare 
and peculiarly suited types of soil is wrong. It will thrive on any 
good, well-drained soil. In an investigation conducted by the Indiana 
Experiment Station, it was found that out of 83 plantings on different 
farms in clay soils, 68 were successful ; out of 188 plantings in loam, 
167 were successful, and out of 17 plantings in sandy soil, 69 were 
successful. In other words, the kind of soil is not one of the most 
important factors in getting a good catch of alfalfa. 

It ivS important, however, that the soil shall be well drained. 
Where ground water stands within three or four feet of the surface 
the crop will not thrive. Such soils may often be tile drained, and 
after the lapse of sufficient time will become well fitted for alfalfa, 
but until this time it is idle to try to induce the crop to grow in such 
ground. 

A fact that is not always sufficiently well recognized is the need 
of this plant for large amounts of proper plant food. Any crop that 
makes the tremendous root system and growth of top characteristic 
of alfalfa must have abundant food with which to carry on its process 
of manufacture. Therefore a soil from which the plant food has been 
largely removed by wasteful farming will not prove suitable for 
alfalfa. There needs to be a plentiful supply of humus in the ground. 



PASTUREAND MEADOW 87 

Getting the Soil Ready. 

The first thing to do is to determine with certainty that the field 
which it is proposed to plant to alfalfa is not acid or sour. Most 
farmers will readily recognize a sour condition of the soil from the 
character of the weed growth. It may further be tested with blue 
litmus paper, which will be turned more or less red on contact with 
moist soils that are acid in character. 

If the soil is acid and the field is otherwise suitable as regards 
drainage and soil fertility, the chances are that an application of lime 
will correct the acidity and place the field in a receptive condition. 
Lime may be applied in the form of ground limestone or in other 
forms. Usually ground limestone is best. The application of lime 
should be made a considerable time prior to the proposed planting 
of the alfalfa, so that the cultivation before planting will thoroughly 
mix the lime with the soil. 

The preparation of the seedbed should be thorough, as indeed 
it should be for most other crops. It is just as important that the 
surface of the soil be fine and mellow as it is that the soil be well 
drained. A light top-dressing of stable manure is one of the best 
means of maintaining a fine mellow condition of surface soil. 

The Weed Question. 

It is essential that the ground be reasonably free froni weed 
seeds. The best way to secure this condition is to keep a hoed crop 
in the field for one or two seasons before seeding it down to alfalfa. 
It should be cultivated frequently during the spring and early sum- 
mer until the time for seeding is at hand. These cultivations will 
destroy most of the weed seeds that germinate and will leave the 
surface soil reasonably free of weeds or viable weed seed. 

Selection of the Seed. 

Alfalfa seed is small and all too frequently is adulterated. These 
adulterations can readily be detected by a small hand lens, such as 
can be bought in optical stores for fifty cents to a dollar. Samples of 
the seed should be looked over carefully and a rough determination 
made of the amount of dirt and weed seeds present. If these are 
considerable, the seed should be returned and a different supply 
bought. 

Planting the Seed, 

Alfalfa may be sown broadcast or may be drilled in. The latter 
is the better way, since it invariably gives more uniform results. 
The amount of seed to be used will run approximately twenty pounds 
to the acre. Successful planting may be made at any time during the 
late spring and early summer. This will depend on the amount of 
other farm work, the rainfall, and the condition of the field that is 
to be planted. The difficulty with planting in late summer is the pos- 
sible occurrence of droughts which will prevent securing a good 
stand. The difficulty with planting too early is the possible smoth- 
ering out of the alfalfa by weeds. 



88 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

When to Cut Alfalfa. 

The young plants should not be mowed so long- as they do not 
start to bloom. Many farmers have followed the practice of clip- 
ping the young plants and some have seemed to get good results, but 
the safer plan is to allow them to grow until they give signs of 
blooming. As cold weather comes on, the tops of alfalfa will die 
down and these will protect the roots and crowns over winter. 

The Question of Inoculation. 

If alfalfa is to be grown in a field where it has never been before, 
it is wise to inoculate the soil. This is done because there must be 
certain species of bacteria in the ground in order that the alfalfa may 
properly gather nitrogen from the air and store it in the nodules on 
the roots. These bacteria may be present already in the soil, but it 
is far safer to introduce them artificially. 

This can readily be done in most cases by securing soil from a 
field in which alfalfa has been growing and scattering this over the 
new field. At least two hundred pounds of soil per acre should be 
used. This soil should be kept from too long exposure to bright sun- 
light and should be harrowed in just as soon as it is scattered over 
the new field. Otherwise many of the bacteria will be killed by the 
action of the sun. 



CHAPTER VIII 

ike Vegetatle Garden 

TO know how to cook well and economically is of even more 
importance to the farmer's wife and daughters than to the 
city woman. For the farmer and his family there are no 
handy restaurants or department store cafe, where if the home 
cooking is bad, the family can get a taste of something better. The 
iarm table is too apt to fall into a round of fat meats and the coarser 
root vegetables. In fact, on most farm tables the potato is the only 
vegetable. 

It takes time and labor to have a good vegetable garden. Time 
and labor are costly assets in the farm life. Yet, from that very fact, 
it is the duty of the women of the household to use every means to 
develop and increase the working power of the farmer's labor day. 
A good day's work is best done on a well-fed stomach. That means 
a diet where fresh fruits and vegetables in the summer time are as 
much a staple as flour and meat. For this reason a good vegetable 
garden is a prime need on a farm, whether for market or home use. 

The beginner in kitchen gardening is apt to be rather conserva- 
tive as to space, which is wise. A little garden well tilled is much 
better than a big one, half cultivated and harvested. Besides, the ordi- 
nary family cannot make good use of very large crops of the more 
tender vegetables. 

Begin Small. 

In order to benefit by the rules set down here begin on a small 
scale, therefore. A plot of 100 by 150 feet will give, with the right 
management, and a succession of crops, all the vegetables needed for 
the farmer's table. An acre will not only supply the vegetables and 
fruits for the farmer's table, but will leave a surplus for the market. 

However, if you want to get the best results from your farming, 
let the women of the family manage as large a vegetable garden as 
you can spare, and see that they get the needed help in the heavy 
work at the right time, even if it does sometimes appear inconveni- 
ent. Choose a good sunny plot for your garden and don't stint it too 
much as to size. The farmer who starts a vegetable garden has the 
advantage of tools, manures and mulching at hand. His only ex- 
pense therefore will be for his seeds. Select a sandy loam, if possible, 
plow in the fall, cultivate often and drag sufficiently to keep out the 
weeds until you are ready for spring planting. A garden free of weeds 
to start with is so much easier to tend. Get seeds from a reliable 
seedsman and as soon as you can work the ground plant onions, pars- 
nips, a few radishes and beets, carrots, lettuce and some early peas. 
The tenderer vegetables may escape the early frosts. If they do, you 



90 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

will be that much better off as to early vegetables. If they do get 
killed, work the ground over well and replant. 

In two weeks plant a few more radishes, lettuce, beets and peas 
for summer use. If you want sweet corn, plant that quite early and 
make three plantings 8 or 10 days apart. Cucumbers planted after 
June 1st are not so liable to attacks from the striped bug. Plant 
winter beets about the same time. 

House Planting in March. 

In general plant as much as possible with the idea of rotation, 
so that your vegetables will furnish your table for the whole summer. 
Your tomatoes, cabbage and cauliflower sow in the house in March 
or in hot-beds. As soon as the second leaves show up well, trans- 
plant to a cold frame four inches apart each way. See that they 
have plenty of moisture and keep covered on very cool nights. 

Wet thoroughly before transplanting to the open ground and 
leave the plants with dirt on them four inches by four inches and 
three inches deep. Put in holes dug large enough so that they will 
receive this lump of dirt without breaking and plant a little deeper 
than in the cold frame. Plant toward evening and in the morning 
clip off with shears some of the outside leaves of the cabbage and 
cauliflower, but do not touch the tomatoes. Leave a few plants in 
the cold frame to fill out with, if needed. If you follow these direc- 
tions carefully, have prepared your seed bed thoroughly in the fall 
and have bought your seeds from a good seed house, you will have 
very few failures in your garden. Even if the season be a dry one, 
faithful cultivation will make up for a great many of Nature's short- 
comings. 

The great advantage of starting the more tender vegetables in- 
doors is that better results are secured, as a rule. The plants are 
stockier, you can save the strongest plants and thin out the weaklings, 
and you can often benefit these strong plants by two transplantings 
before setting out in the open. In this case the second transplanting 
should be when they have grown three or four leaves. The best 
plants to start indoors are tomatoes, peppers, egg-plant, the last two 
of which are very tender, and need to be kept warm day and night; 
all varieties of cabbage take a long time to grow, as does celery, and 
need an early start. 

Vegetables should not be crowded, and no second crop planting 
should be between the rows until the first crop is matured and har- 
vested. The soil should be refertilized and cultivated before the sec- 
ond planting; if crowded they become weak and feeble, therefore give 
plenty of room for an abundant growth. 

Manures or Fertilizers. 
Any reliable dealer will give you a good general "garden fer- 
tilizer," and if you want to get quick results, these are most valuable. 
But there is nothing to equal the staying power of stable manures. 
As a restorer of worn-out soils this has no equal in applied fertilizers. 
Manures combined with clover crops, turned in deeply for a couple 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 91 

of years, must be used in order to get the best results from com- 
mercial fertilizers. 

The latter on poor or worn-out soils, are like whips to a tired 
horse. You may get a spurt of activity, but the horse is that much 
worse ofif later on. Feed up a starved soil first before you begin the 
practice of hurrying it along. Every dollar of the commercial fer- 
tilizer will pay its full value then. Manure not only gives plant food, 
but organic matter, "humus," as well as needed bacteria. It acts me- 
chanically upon soil and holds moisture. Fertilizers are just food. 
In using garden fertilizers do not stint them. For some soils 1,000 
lbs. per acre will be ample, but others will need a ton. Put about 
half on by sowing broadcast after plowing and before harrowing, and 
the rest when the drill is used. Don't let it come in contact with the 
seeds or roots at that period. This rule is for large market gardens. 
Smaller ones will suggest hand methods for distribution of the fer- 
tilizer. 

The fall is the best time to apply an added mulch of manure to 
the hardy perennials. Asparagus and rhubarb especially require it, 
because it gives the needed stir-up to nature's forces in the spring, 
when early garden vegetables need to be helped along. In April, 
nitrate of soda applied before a rain will hurry up the new growth. 
In June and July some more of any quick acting commercial fertilizer 
may be given. The nitrate of soda applied at intervals of about three 
weeks, may be apportioned in quantities of about one ounce to three 
gallons of water if the season is a dry one. But if wet scatter the 
nitrate on the ground — an ounce to a square yard and rake well into 
the surface. 

In winters that are open, with freezes and thaws, the value of a 
mulch of manure in the garden is very evident. It not only protects 
the plants from being lifted out of their winter beds by the breaking 
up of the earth in the sudden changes of temperature, but it is adding 
food to the soil. 

The Cold Frame. 

The question of climate must always be considered in open 
ground planting or in early seed growing indoors. Fine seed plants 
need generally continued warmth, and in a Minnesota climate, for 
instance, warm nights are not likely until the last of May or the first 
week of June. 

In northern climates, some plants always need forwarding, by 
means of the seed bed, or cold frame, in order to get early results. A 
seed bed must be made for permanence, as it can be used all through 
the summer. A southern exposure in a dry plot is very necessary, 
and a thoroughly made frame of one-inch planks, from four and a half 
to six feet wide and any length desired should be constructed. This 
should be about 18 inches high at the rear, but only about half as high 
in front. The corner stakes should be from two ft. to 2 ft. 3 in. in 
length. Set in the ground with rear planks about six or seven inches 
above ground, and front ones only two or three inches above. It 
needs about two or three inches of slope for drainage and sunlight. 



92 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Get the best quality of soil, prepare it thoroughly, so that it will 
be free from lumps and well pulverized. The following- plants may 
be sown three inches apart in hot-bed: Cabbage, Cauliflower, En- 
dive, Celery, Kale, Parsley, Kohlrabi, Head Lettuce, Egg-plant, Leek, 
Peppers. 

A table for the time it takes common vegetables to show above 
ground follows, also the probable time of edible use. 

Radishes — From three to six days after planting. One month to 
45 days. 

Lettuce — From six to eight days. One month to 3 months. 

Endive — From five to ten days. About 45 days. 

Peas— Six to ten days. 40, 50 to 80 days. 

Beans — Five to ten days. 50 days. 

Celery — Twelve days to twenty. 170 days before using. 

Cabbage — One week to ten days. About 100 days. 

Cauliflower — One week. About 125 days. 

Corn — Seven to eight days. From 55 to 90 days. 

Onions — One week to ten days. From 100 to 160 days. 

Turnips — Four to eight days. From 60 to 70 days. 

Parsnips — Ten to twenty days. About 140 days. 

For each hundred miles north or south of your own latitude 
allow about six days' difference in time of planting. In the latitude 
of New York City such quick growing vegetables as radishes, lettuce, 
corn salad, endive, and spinach could be grown from September plant- 
ings, but not in Minnesota. 

Hot Beds. 

A hotbed for early seed growing is excellent. Have a good frame 
which can be covered by a couple of storm windows. Set it up in a 
warm, protected place, where the rays of the sun will fall directly 
on the glass, not obliquely, during most of the day. A high board 
fence, the south side of any building near the house, or a shelter belt 
of evergreens will make a good protection. 

Potatoes. 

Potatoes make one of the most profitable crops that can be raised. 
In the northwest especially, the potato crop is coming to be one of 
great importance. Because of the excellent quality of the potatoes 
grown in this locality they have a wide reputation. 

A clover or alfalfa sod is the best kind of ground on which 
to grow potatoes, A grass sod comes next. A rich corn stubble is 
good. In more southern localities ground that has grown cowpeas 
or soy beans previously should produce good crops. A heavy dress- 
ing of manure — 20 loads to each acre — put on evenly by a manure 
spreader, is not too much for some soils if you want big yields. But 
there are many localities where good crops can be grown without 
manure. Plow the land in the spring or fall reasonably deep so as to 
bury all sod — making the seed bed deep enough so that seed may be 
planted four inches deep on the turned sod. 

Winter rye, grown as a catch crop between two crops of potatoes 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 93 

and then plowed under is specially good as a fertilizer and pre- 
ventive of scab. Canada field peas are good. You can grow both in 
a single season if necessary. Or, try a crop of corn raised on the 
grass sod soil and plowed under after well manuring. Potatoes thrive 
well after such land treatment and are fine in size, brighter colored 
and free from scab. 

Another method that has been tried successfully for building 
up potato land is to dress good sod land with acid phosphate and 
muriate of potash before plowing for corn. Rye follows this to be 
plowed under in the spring. Dress with same fertilizers again and 
sow to cow peas, which can be used for forage. Harrow and sow 
rye in the second fall. In the next year prepare for the potato crop 
after plowing under the rye. For very thin soil this is sure to produce 
results. 

Potatoes require a large amount of potash for their best develop- 
ment, but they also require a goodly supply of nitrogen and phos- 
phoric acid. Many growers attempt to grow potatoes with wood 
ashes, potash salts and other fertilizers rich in principally potash, 
but this is a poor policy unless it is known that the land is well sup- 
plied with the other essential forms of fertility. 

If straw has previously been spread 4 to 6 inches deep on the 
ground and plowed under in the fall your year's straw will return you 
from $4 to $6 per ton. Horse stable manure with plenty of straw in 
it is good. Too solid manure is apt to make scabby potatoes. If 
the intention is to apply stable manure to the potato land the stock 
should be heavily bedded with straw or leaves. 

How to Plant. 

In planting potatoes, if you have not a planter, mark one way 
with a light marker and the other with a light plow. Then drop the 
seed potatoes, take the drag and cover by crossing the furrows. If 
once does not cover them deep enough, lap the drag. Cultivate as 
soon as the potatoes come in sight, throwing deep, about three inches, 
at first, but later, when the potatoes are a few inches high, cultivate 
lightly. The cultivator will do the hilling. 

For a small plot of ground plant the potatoes for drills from 2^ 
ft. to 3 ft. apart, the last being best for most varieties. Drop the seed 
about 15 in. apart in the row. The number of eyes left to each cut 
seed depends on whether early or late tubers are being used. Usually 
more eyes are left in the late seed than in the early. 

Then harrow twice, if possible, before the seed comes up. The 
harrow should run across the rows the first time to level the land. 
On very loose soils, the weeder must then be used. A one-horse 
weeder is the best to manage. Cultivate the soil towards the plants. 
The sooner the dirt is around them the better. 

If the ground is very dry put the weeder to work in .two or three 
days after planting. No seed potatoes should be left for sun and 
wind to dry up, but constant cultivation should be practiced. Set 
the cultivator teeth so that the dirt will be thrown toward the plants 
the first time of using it and continue this through the season. If you 
use this method the center of the potato hill becomes the lowest and 



94 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

holds all local showers. At the last working hill to from 4 to 6 in. 
above the level. 

I have cultivated, in the light, sandy soil of Anoka Co., Minn., 
as an experiment, on the Wittig farm, two potato plots, one by the 
deep cultivation and hilling method, and the other by shallow and 
level culture. The first method yielded one-half bushel of potatoes 
from six hills. The second required twenty-two hills in order to fill 
a ten-quart pail. The quality of the potatoes was also greatly in- 
creased in value by the hilling on light soils. 

On heavy soils, however, do not hill. Level culture is better. 
On such soils hilling after the plants are ten inches high causes the 
growth of additional tuber-bearing stems to develop, which makes 
the plants produce two distinct crops, both of which will be of inferior 
size potatoes. 

Seed Potatoes Should Be Whole. 

Seed potatoes, for a good crop, should be the middle size of the 
last year's crop. If cut, cut once in two the long way of the potato. 
Plant soon after cutting. Potatoes yield much better when the seed is 
planted immediately after cutting. I have proved this by actual ex- 
periments on the same soil with the same cultivation. Potatoes 
planted at once after cutting not only came up several days before 
the others but made a stronger growth and yielded a larger crop of 
perfect potatoes. 

Potatoes intended for seed should not be left in a dark place until 
late in the spring, to sprout and grow together. Spread out the seed 
potatoes thinly in a dry and light room. Too much of the growth 
principle goes to waste by letting potatoes sprout. 

Very small potatoes are not good as seed. You may get a fair 
crop from them, but you are far more likely to have a poor one, espe- 
cially where you plant small seed year after year. The size of a hen's 
egg is the best size for seed. And I may add that this size, planted 
whole, especially in a dry spring, will be pretty sure to give you ex- 
cellent results. Whole potatoes used for seed and put in dry ground 
do not shrink. Only about one-fourth of whole seed ever grows to 
maturity. 

A very good plan, and one that is practiced here very little, if at 
all, is this one of planting whole potatoes the size of a hen's egg, or 
larger, instead of slicing up big ones. The writer traveled over a sec- 
tion of northern Minnesota, where it was said to be excellent for pro- 
ducing potatoes. Of 20 or 30 fields visited a very large per cent had 
failed to produce — in some about one-tenth of the hills had failed. 
This condition was undoubtedly due, in part, if not wholly, to the fact 
that sliced potatoes or cut seed had been used. These were placed un- 
doubtedly in the dry, sandy soil, then after planting, no rain came to 
wet the ground, and the cut pieces dried up, so that the vitality was 
lost. 

To guard against this condition whole potatoes should be planted. 
Potatoes the size of a hen's egg are best. This system is used gen- 
erally in New York by the most successful growers. Medium pota- 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 95 

toes of the size of large hen's eggs can thus be planted in dry soil 
and not lose their vitality. A second reason for planting whole pota- 
toes has to do with the eyes. About one-third the eyes on a potato do 
not mature — the stronger eyes take the substance from the weaker 
ones — thus, when a whole potato is put in, one is sure that some of 
the eyes will mature. Then it stands to reason that there will be 
more sprouts and these will be hardier, and it has been proved by 
actual experience that about 3 times as many potatoes are secured 
in this manner. These are more uniform in size and demand the best 
market price. In the case of sliced seed the potatoes resulting are few 
and overgrown, often being hollow. 

A field of clover plowed under makes an excellent seed bed, or 
40 loads of coarse barnyard manure to the acre, plowed under, will be 
equivalent. 

Potato Culture. 

A good way to treat potatoes to keep down weeds is to put on 
straw, after planting, so that weeds cannot come through. Fine 
straw that cattle have pounded to pieces laid on so that a shovel plow 
can still run between the hills and turn straw and some dirt on the 
hills, is said to be a good method. 

Turnips make good fertilizer for potato land, even if only used 
for harvesting. Plowed under they are splendid in returns, and can 
be grown after the crop of early potatoes is dug. 

No matter how strong your early potato plants look, don't fail 
to spray them with the Bordeaux mixture about three times every 
months from the time growth is well established until the first or 
middle of September, according to latitude. This is the only safe way 
to ensure against the potato blight. 

A power potato digger is a great help to the commercial potato 
grower. By digging for his neighbors he can soon pay for its cost. 

An excellent authority on potato growing is T. B. Torrey's "A B 
C of Potato Culture." Bulletin No. 118 of the Minnesota College of 
Agriculture gives good advice and a great many comparative tables 
as to potato experiments and studies in 1909. 

Potato Diseases. 

For blight in potatoes Bordeaux mixture is the specific as a 
preventive. But it must be used in time, for if blight once gets a hold, 
all the spraying you may give the plants will do no good. The 
potato plants should be spra3^ed with the Bordeaux when they are but 
six inches high and be sprayed thereafter at intervals of every ten 
days until from five to seven applications have been given. When the 
potato bugs put in their appearance the Paris green can be added to 
the Bordeaux mixture as though the latter was mere water, and a 
combination spray will be had that will both prevent the diseases and 
kill the beetles. One ounce of the Paris green will be sufficient to add 
to every six to eight gallons of the Bordeaux. 

The expense of spraying is hardly worth mentioning when com- 
pared to saving a crop worth one to two hundred dollars per acre. 



96 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

A good way of treating potatoes to prevent them from sprouting 
and therefore shriveling is given by an Eastern potato grower. Be- 
fore the potatoes are stored soak them for one hour in a solution of 
one pint sulphuric acid to twenty-five gallons of water. Mix the solu- 
tion thoroughly before immersing the tubers. After removing them 
from the bath allow them to become thoroughly dried and then store 
them away in barrels or large boxes. Tubers thus treated retain all 
of their edible qualities but are useless for planting purposes. Aside 
from killing the sprouting portions of the potatoes the solution kills 
the decay germs, and potatoes thus treated are not liable to rot 
in storage. 

One pint of commercial formalin to thirty gallons of water is a 
good solution in which to soak seed potatoes as a preventive of scab. 
A corrosive sublimate mixture is sometimes used, but great care must 
be exercised with this. Soak with the formalin for two hours before 
planting. Use a barrel or tub for container. Draw the water through 
a bung hole and use it again. You can use two barrels to advantage 
by filling one while the other is soaking. If potatoes already have 
scab, cut them after they are treated, but spread in the sun before 
cutting. 

Marketing. 

Dig potatoes in dry weather, if possible. If you can manage to 
harvest them before the fall rains set in, they will come out of the 
ground very clean and be of more market value. 

Any farmer who does not thoroughly acquaint himself with the 
conditions of his own market and the best way of disposing of his 
garden crops deserves not to have the good steady customers that 
can be found in all market towns, whether for wholesale or retail 
trade. Well sorted potatoes, all small, rough and bruised potatoes 
being discarded for market purposes, will greatly add to the potato 
profit. Care in the sorting and handling of the potato crop will bring 
returns three or four times as large per acre as can be had from other 
western crops. Yet they ought to bring much more than they do. 
Another point : when you exhibit at fairs be sure to name your prod- 
ucts wherever varieties are called for. Then when potatoes are likely 
to be low at wholesale, look out for family trade, rather than to sell 
in the open market. 

Rhubarb. 

Rhubarb plants should be set from two to four feet apart and in 
rows 6 feet apart. The best method of propagation is to divide old 
roots. The second year, if set in good rich soil, the stalks can be used 
somewhat. The third year the crop will be full. By not coming to 
blossom, rhubarb can be had all summer, but it does better if given 
a period of rest. Barrels without heads can be set over plants in 
order to obtain long, tender stalks. If glass is put on top of these 
the rhubarb will be improved in flavor. 

Where rhubarb is to be forced for commercial use in the spring 
the clumps should be lifted late in the fall, set close together on the 
ground to freeze, and covered with enough litter of straw to keep 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 97 

them dry. When frozen solid, remove to the cellar and pack in sand 
until February. 

The Victoria is a good variety of rhubarb and a very large, early 
and a vigorous grower. 

Radishes. 

Radishes need a light soil and plenty of v\rater. Given the right 
quality of seed, and frequent watering, radishes will be ready for the 
table in four or five weeks after sowing. They are best in rows a 
foot apart and not so closely sown that they will need thinning. In 
frames or greenhouses, four inches is thought enough space between 
rows. The scarlet turnip radish grows very rapidly. If new seed is 
put in when radishes are pulled a succession of radishes can easily 
be had on a very small plot. In such a system, though, cultivate well 
and keep the ground active. Put seed in about one-half inch deep. 
Keep the earth well fertilized. 

Lettuce. 

Lettuce growing, for any one who lives near city markets, is not 
much favored in these days of excellent and cheap hothouse lettuce, 
but for the farmer's wife, the summer lettuce bed should be started 
in the latter part of March, in the house. Transplant to a partially 
shaded situation as soon as the ground is warm enough. Sub-irriga- 
tion for lettuce is now more and more used by market gardeners, but 
many people claim that more lettuce is produced by surface watering. 

If the lettuce earth-louse attacks your plants try bisulphide of 
carbon poured in holes six inches deep and one foot apart between 
the rows of lettuce, one tablespoonful to each hole. Fill the holes im- 
mediately with soil. This will kill the insects, but you had better dig 
up the lettuce bed, as it will be of no special value afterwards and 
try a crop of something else — almost anything but celery. 

The Big Boston lettuce is a good variety for fall use, and may 
be sown about the last of July. If the cool weather reddens the 
leaves cover the plants with a thin sprinkling of straw or salt during 
cold nights or days. 

When sowing lettuce, do not sow the seed too thickly, nor 
too deep. One-half inch apart and about the same depth is a good 
rule. Cultivate as soon as the rows can be seen above ground, with 
either the small garden tool sold for that purpose or with an ordinary 
large tined kitchen fork. Cultivate lightly at first, merely scatching 
the surface at a little distance from the plants. Every three or four 
days is often enough for cultivation, but as the plants develop, get 
closer to the stem and deeper into the soil. Water freely when the 
sdil is dry. 

In order to prevent the bitter taste of lettuce late in the season, 
keep the bed, as I have said, well shaded. Some lettuce growers 
erect burlap frames as covers for small beds of lettuce for family use. 
This method keeps the leaves tender and crisp, and almost as well 
bleached as the inside of head lettuce, while often superior in flavor. 



98 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Endive, 

Endive is a salad plant which is growing in favor more and more. 
The curly endive is probably the most tender variety. Sown in April, 
it will be ready for the table about June 1st. A succession of sow- 
ings every two weeks until June or July, will give salad for fall use. 
The cultivation of endive is about as for lettuce. Sow in drills or in 
rows and thin to about a foot apart. The plants thinned out can be 
used. Pick the leaves off the plants left when four inches in length. 
If cut off, other leaves will grow. If it is desired to blanch it, draw 
the leaves together and tie about a month before it will be wanted 
for the table. 

Onions. 

Multiplier onions never grow large and their place is better filled 
by the perennial onions. These are often ready for table use as soon 
as the frost is out of the ground. Plant in the fall. The old plants 
left in the ground produce a new crop in the spring. They can stand 
very thick in the row. 

Chives, which have a small leaf like grass, to be eaten, are also 
perennial. If you get good seed you will not fail to grow chives. For 
a flavoring herb in soups they are popular, and also in summer salads. 
The stock is increased by dividing the bulbs. 

If you wish to try okra or gumbo, get the dwarf varieties for the 
north. They are early, and the pods, which are excellent for stew- 
ing when young, mature earlier. As a rule, however, okra does better 
in the southern states or the middle central. It is easily grown in the 
right temperatures. 

Whenever it is desired to keep the young onion sets producing 
beyond June be sure to use the seed producers first, or else pinch 
out the seed stalks. Onion sets should be planted three to four inches 
apart in rows one foot apart and three inches deep. The best way 
is to make a furrow of this depth and cover each set with the rake, 
firming well over each. Onions do not keep well through the winter. 
The Red Globe are the best keepers. 

Spinach. 

One of the great advantages of a spinach bed is the succession of 
crops that can be had. By the use of liquid manure a quick growth 
is secured, and eight or ten plantings can be made between April 
and September. As the chief value of spinach is in its youth and 
tenderness, a large plot is not necessary for the home garden. 

After the early spinach of May and June six plantings can still 
be made for fall and winter use. Sow twice in July, August and 
September. As the season advances, seed should be sown much 
thinner. In fall the plants spread and are ranker in growth. Late 
spinach can be left in the garden until after the early frosts, which 
always improves its flavor. Where spinach is capable of being 
wintered, hoeing must be kept up weekly until hard frost prevent. 
The New Zealand varieties are excellent as standards. 

The prickly spinach has a great reputation for flavor and early 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 99 

growth ; and it is the early "greens" which seem to be the most 
desired. Spinach, on the other hand, can be sown as late as October in 
some latitudes for spring use. The winter thick leaved is good. 
Mulch heavily with straw, leaves or salt hay. 

Early spinach should be cut just as soon as it is large enough to 
be properly prepared for the table. The plants go to seed before fully 
grown in June. 

Asparagus. 

If economy is to be observed very closely in the home garden, it 
is better to start the asparagus bed from seed. This means that you 
do not expect to get results for about four years, as an asparagus bed 
needs about a year of thorough preparation, and then about three 
years of growth after sowing seed before any cuttings of value can 
be had. If you decide upon the seeding process fertilize the plot for 
the bed early in the preceding spring, spading in at least six inches 
of well rotted manure. During the summer rake often and repeat the 
process of spading over at least once and then rake again until the 
surface is smooth and the eartb thoroughly cultivated for at least a 
foot or more in depth. Seed with clover and leave until the next 
year when another fertilizing with rotted manure, about half as much 
as before, spread over and spaded in will give you the rich mellow 
soil needed for asparagus. 

A very large plot of ground is not required for family use. One 
thirty feet by ten feet will be ample, but the deep cultivation before- 
hand is a prime need, as no further cultivation of any depth can be 
given. A dressing of common salt once a year is said to give a better 
flavor to the stalks, as asparagus is a salt water plant. 

Sow the seed in drills. The plant can be lifted the next year 
and transplanted into furrows about two feet apart and eighteen 
inches between plants. Some authorities require four feet apart in 
furrows, but this is for commercial planting, where fine stalks are 
desired. If one wants to get asparagus sooner, buy plants from two 
to three years old. They are usually very cheap. Do not transplant 
in the fall. The spring is the safe time, unless you want to risk winter 
killing. If the asparagus plot is wanted for early spring use, it can 
be treated late in the summer or some cover crop put on in the fall 
beside clover. After the bed is once started keep up its fertility by 
manuring heavily after the cuttings have been made, and keeping this 
on as a mulch. Commercial fertilizers, which will act quickly, are 
needed in the spring. The first planting of asparagus plants should 
come up in about ten days in any normal season. If you don't get 
good results from plants the first season replant freshly next spring, 
but keep up your fertilizing process. Care taken at the outset will 
give you an asparagus bed which will last a generation, with proper 
cultivation from year to year. Plant seedlings in rows foiir feet apart, 
and have three feet between the plants. Set from six to eight inches 
deep. Plow and harrow the plot each year about the middle of June, 
when cutting usually stops. In the fall cover deep with well rotted 
manure to the depth of several inches. 



100 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

If you plan to raise asparagus for market purposes, don't count 
on less than five acres. Prepare the land in the season before, if you 
propose to start with the plants. Spread a heavy four-inch dressing 
of rotted manure over the plot in the late spring. Plow and harrow. 
Seed to rye. The next spring put on a second layer of manure. Plow 
dressing and cover crop under together, and then furrow as directed 
before. For commercial purposes three feet each way is the nearest 
that roots should be set for fine "grass," and four feet is better. 

Professor S. B. Green, late horticulturist of the Minnesota School 
of Agriculture, advised applying manure in June just after cutting 
ceases and working it well into the ground. It is a common prac- 
tice to mulch asparagus with manure in the fall and work this in in 
the spring. But many gardeners in the west claim that this protec- 
tion is not needed, as the depth of soil over the crowns is sufficient 
protection and the manure on the surface holds the frost and retards 
the starting into growth. The bulletin of the United States Bureau of 
Agriculture also recommends using manure heavily immediately after 
the cutting season, say in June, as that is the season when the roots 
are storing up food for next season's growth and forming new buds. 
It prefers, however, leaving the manure on the ground as a mulch to 
keep down weeds and to keep the ground moist. 

In New Jersey and some other eastern states a dififerent method 
of raising is sometimes used. For small families John I. Sipp recom- 
mends an area nine by twenty-seven feet. In this case plant five 
rows lengthwise the bed, placing the first row fourteen inches from 
either side of the margins and the rows twenty inches apart. The 
plants in the row should be placed eighteen inches apart, giving about 
twenty plants to the row or 100 plants to the bed. 

The season before setting out the plants, if the area can be 
spared from other garden vegetables, spade into the soil about the 
last of June a six-inch layer of rotted manure, working over the 
upper strata of earth during the spading operation to the depth of 
fifteen inches. During the next six weeks rake over the surface of 
the bed at weekly intervals, and about the middle of August give the 
bed another good spading and rake the surface down smooth. Then 
seed the area to crimson clover. Nothing more need be done to the 
bed until early next spring, when a four-inch layer of rotted manure 
should be spread over the clover and the bed spaded. The plants 
should then be set. From that time on the fertility of the bed can be 
maintained by summer manuring, fall mulching with manure and 
spring applications of quick acting fertilizers. 

Should the area be planted to other crops at that time, wait until 
after they have been gathered, then proceed as directed above. If 
the crops are not all off until late September or early October, substi- 
tute rye as a cover crop for the crimson clover. 

Asparagus can be forced in the cellar for winter, but as the best 
clumps must be used and are worthless afterward, practical com- 
mercial gardeners do not advise it. In the field, the work is usually 
done by a trench between two rows, at least two feet deep, and filled 
with green manure. Over rows and trench a cold frame is built and 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 101 

this is banked with green manure. When this process is an early one, 
the frame must be covered on cold nights. 

In cutting off asparagus tops, which should be done in late Sep- 
tember, cut a few inches above the surface, and burn the tops at a 
distance. This is a great help in disposing of insect trouble or dis- 
ease. If two year plants are bought for small plots, they can be cut a 
little the next spring. But just as much care must be taken as for 
commercial purposes in getting the bed ready, and the plants must be 
set at least six inches deep. Cover about three inches at first ar^d the 
shallow and frequent cultivation that must be given will soon fill up 
the trench. 

The best varieties of asparagus are Conover's Colossal, Columbia, 
Mammoth White, Palmetto, and Burr's Mammoth. This last is a 
standard market variety and very large, tender and early. 

Tomatoes. 

The great commercial value of a tomato crop lies in the growing 
of early varieties, which will possess the qualities of color and flavor 
of the late types. Selection of seeds counts greatly here. Choose 
any good, early variety, and by careful cultivation and seed selec- 
tion a few years will be pretty sure to evolve a fruit evenly ripened, 
with smooth skin, firm flesh, and early maturity. 

No better tomato can be recommended for the home garden than 
the Earlianna. In any ordinary season it begins to ripen by the last 
week of July. Get good plants, do not have the soil too rich or too 
poor, transplant carefully and cultivate thoroughly and if you do not 
have prolific bearing it will be one of those mistakes of nature for 
which no man can account. Sometimes these plants run all to vine. 
Cut back all the leading stems then, and this will often help bearing. 
Very dry weather will always reduce the early tomato yield, and will 
cause the underneath leaves to dry up badly. 

Start the plants under glass in March, says a Minnesota gar- 
dener. "When plants are two inches high, transplant into flats, thumb 
pots or plant boxes, and later transplant again, giving more room. 
Never crowd the plants, but keep them short and stocky. Plants 
already in bloom or with fruit set, if in wooden plant boxes or in pots, 
may be transplanted to open ground without disturbing their roots, 
and will continue to bloom and fruit without check. Set these sorts 
six feet apart each way in warm, mellow soil of fair fertility as soon 
as danger from belated frosts is past. For main crop, the plants can 
be started somewhat later, in hotbed or cold frame, once transplanted 
to keep them stocky, and then set in open ground, in fairly good 
warm soil, five feet apart each way. A very ornamental show can 
be made in the home garden by training tomato plants to stakes, 
poles or trellis. Applications of superphosphate, or of- some good 
complete (vegetable) fertilizer often have a very happy effect on 
tomatoes in hastening maturity and increasing the yield." 

Select an open, unshaded spot, where the soil is a retentive, sandy 
loam. Wood ashes are an excellent fertilizer for tomatoes as they 
are rich in potash. Be sure, however, that the other essentials of soil 



102 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

fertility are not lacking. Train your tomatoes by the pole method 
if the gardener has only limited ground. The crop is extended over 
both ends of the season and both quantity and quality are improved 
by training the vines to climb. The foliage not being so thick they 
ripen earlier, snails do not eat the fruit, and it can be gathered much 
easier. Cultivation by the hoe can be frequent, also. 

The poles are driven on the north side and are from six to eight 
feet long. A crowbar is recommended to help out the labor of placing 
these. They are driven in about 18 inches deep and 3 feet apart and 
well pressed in by earth. All side shoots are kept pruned off after 
the plants are a foot high, and the top runners only are retained. 
These are tied, one on each side, to the pole by soft strips of cloth or 
binding twine. Tie at regular spaces as the plant grows ; about every 
six inches, or once a week, if the yield seems likely to be heavy. In 
the fall pull up the dead plants at the roots and leave them on the 
poles to dry. 

If many tomatoes are unripened when frost comes, the vines 
may be pulled and hung in the cellar. Or, if you have a good, ariy 
barn loft, spread the larger ones on the floor, and they will ripen 
gradually in a moderate temperature. Green tomatoes put under the 
hotbed sashes will often ripen. Piled along the south side .of the 
house and covered with old sacking at night they will keep until 
Christmas in some latitudes. 

No matter what the method of growing tomatoes, do not cut off 
the leaves on the main stems very freely until the fruit is well 
formed. Cutting off the leaves too early is a loss of material for plant 
food and therefore to the production of fruit. Keep the soil about 
the roots moist, but not too wet. Don't water the foliage. 

When plants are in bloom, in order to insure thorough polleniz- 
ing, either strike the poles sharply each day about noon, or brush the 
flowers lightly with a soft brush. Where tomatoes are grown in the 
hill, the fruit will ripen quicker and more evenly if the vines are 
pulled open to the sunlight. If you follow the stem method, don't try 
it on the dwarf species of tomato. Almost any of the other popular 
varieties will do well, if you are sure to get good plants — whether 
from your own transplanting, or from a nursery. 

If tomato seed from one's own patch is to be saved select the first 
fruits to ripen for this purpose. The ground cherry or husk tomato 
may be grown by the same methods as the ordinary tomato. 

Bordeaux mixture will tend to keep the blight and rot away from 
the tomatoes if the plants are sprayed every ten days until the fruit 
begins to color. If the tomato worm or the potato bug is trouble- 
some add a little Paris green to the Bordeaux. Hand picking is also 
good. 

The variety of tomato to be raised is a matter of some import- 
ance. Livingston's Perfection and Dwarf Champion are especial 
favorites. The owner of a large truck farm says that he always 
raises Mammoth Ponderosa, no matter what variety he may grow 
for the market, as they have fewer seeds and are more meaty. More 
pounds of fruit per plant will be obtained than from any other kind. 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 103 

Raise some plants of Golden Sunrise, a large yellow tomato, as the 
two colors look very attractive when sliced together on the same 
plate. 

At Crystal Springs, Mississippi, there has been for a long time, 
a system of tomato culture, of which I give the following detailed 
account. The tomatoes are set three or three and one-half feet apart. 
When the first sucker (branch) is two inches long, it is pinched out, 
as are all suckers that appear afterward. The pole method is then 
followed, requiring from three to four tyings until the tomato reaches 
about four feet from the ground. Then the bud is pinched out. 

This gives a plant with a dozen or more very big leaves, and five 
or six clusters of great, perfect fruit. By this way it is claimed that 
there is no danger of the tomatoes rotting or mildewing. They ripen 
earlier than by any other method of stalking and can endure dry 
weather better, as well as be cultivated easier. The vine can be 
trained to two stalks, if a bushier plant is wanted. 

The writer has proved by experience that the following method 
is successful : 

Having decided on the location of the bed, set up planks one foot 
wide and excavate inside the enclosure to 2i/2-foot depth. Then fill 
this in with two feet, when trod down close, of fresh horse stable man- 
ure. Wet this very thoroughly and place about 6 inches of rich soil 
over it. 

It is now ready for planting and the plants should be placed 4 feet 
apart each way. These can be set three weeks earlier than those 
planted in open ground. 

The bed should then be wet twice a week after being planted. If 
the evening air gets down to freezing point have 2x4's or any con- 
venient pieces of wood ready so that canvas can be stretched across 
the bed and protect the plants. No glass need be used at all, as the 
heat evolved from the fresh manure will make the plants grow when 
seeds placed in ordinary cold ground lie dormant. 4 

The writer has also found that the faster a tomato is grown the 
more meaty it is and the less seeds it has. Also the tomato is more 
uniform in size. 

These ripen some 4 weeks ahead of those planted by the old 
method and all are ripened before early frost. 

Beets. 

Garden beets thrive in loam. A rich, sandy loam, planted at the 
rate of about five pounds to the acre, in drills twelve to eighteen 
inches apart, and the seed covered to a depth of about one inch, will 
generally give good returns. Thin the rows to four or five inches 
apart when beets are well up. You can plant every four or five weeks 
during the spring, if a succession of young beets, or .beet tops for 
greens, is wanted. Sugar beets will do very well for winter use. If 
only a few rows of beets are needed two ounces of beet seed will be 
plenty, sowing about 100 feet to row. Do not sow until all danger of 
frost is over. If they are to be cultivated by horse, leave 30 inches 
for cultivation, and sow in a double drill 6 inches between. 



104 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

For very early table beets, to be pulled when small and very 
tender, have drills from 16 to 20 inches apart and sow the seed about 
one inch deep. Quicker results, of course, will be had from seed 
sown in the house, and the plants set out about a month later. You 
can thin as needed so that plants will stand six or eight inches apart 
but for early beet greens and young beets they can be closer. Nitrate 
of soda well worked in will help you to get quick results. One hun- 
dred pounds per acre is a good proportion. 

Sugar beets for stock feeding should be sown about the middle 
of May on good, rich soil. Keep free from weeds and cultivate thor- 
oughly. Twelve or fifteen pounds of seed to the acre are not too 
much. Too much moisture is not good for the sugar beet crop, unless 
where planted on high, well drained land. Plenty of sunshine and 
warm weather are necessary for the ripening of any sugar producing 
plant. Yields of sugar beets are not infrequent of 1,500 to 2,000 
bushels per acre. 

Sugar beet tops make especially good spring greens. 

Growing sugar beets requires a large amount of skill and experi- 
ence as well as good, rich, mellow soil. Manure well in the fall, plow 
under early in the spring. Plant from about May 20 to June 20. Cul- 
tivate often, every three days is not too often and every two days 
is better. Leave from three to six inches apart in the rows, and row 
three feet apart for horse cultivation. If the summer is dry at the 
end, keep up cultivation until very late in the season. 

Sweet Corn. 

Sweet corn can be planted like peas, in a succession of plant- 
ings. For an early crop try Peep o' Day, next Golden Bantam, then 
Country Gentleman. For a late crop, Stowell's Evergreen, which is 
recommended by the Department of Agriculture. If these are all 
planted at the same time in different plots they will come along in 
succession. But a little difference of a few days will be better. 

Sow in rich ground three feet apart, as soon as the corn plant- 
ing time comes in your locality. Put in seed two inches deep and 
about six to eight inches apart. You can put it in thicker, thinning 
out to a foot apart later. If the corn is planted in hills, put about 
six seeds in the hill, and keep three feet apart. Cultivate much and 
often, until well started. Then thin to four stalks in the hill. Corn 
must be cultivated often, however, until the end of yield, though 
not very deeply at the last. The ears of late sweet corn may be kept 
in fair condition for some time after frost comes by cutting and 
shocking the stalks, and protecting the shock from drying. As fast 
as the ears are gathered, however, before frost comes cut the sweet 
corn stalks. This gives the other stalks in hill or the row more chance 
to mature. 

Garden Peas. 

There are some fifty varieties of garden peas and these have sev- 
eral classes : the dwarf, extra early wrinkled, extra early round, and 
the later, main crop variety. The extra early, for a northwestern 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 105 

climate is uncertain ; the dwarf is usually reliable, but the large Tele- 
phone peas for a late spring climate are always to be chosen. A rich, 
sandy, loam soil for peas is fine, though a clay soil may be used to 
advantage, except that the crop will be later. 

When planting have open furrows three or four inches deep and 
three feet apart, scatter the seed peas in, cover with the hoe, or the 
plow, according to convenience, and cultivate like corn or beans. The 
tall kinds will need support and may be planted in double rows. The 
very dwarf peas may be planted a foot apart, need no brush or sup- 
port, but must have the very best soil they can get for good returns. 

If a continuous supply is wanted for the garden, plant every ten 
days or two weeks during the spring months, beginning as soon as 
the ground can be worked. If gathered very young, the pods can be 
used like snap beans. 

In northern climates it is not best to plant garden peas in the 
fall. Fertilize the ground for peas thoroughly with rotted manure 
in the fall and plow or spade the dressing under. In the spring you 
can plant very early by raking or harrowing. In the far south peas 
are grown during the entire winter. 

Beans. 

Some gardeners say that they can grow good crops of beans on 
poor land, but this is a mistake. You can raise fairly good crops of 
beans on almost any reasonably porous soil, with a fair amount of 
fertility. But the best soil for beans is a sandy loam. If the soil is 
a too black loam too much straw is the result. 

Do not plant too early, but begin about May 1 and continue on 
until June 10. Beans cannot withstand frost well, and corn-planting 
time is the best for dropping them. In fact, a little after the corn- 
planting, is apt to help rather than harm, but not so late that the 
autumn frosts will get them. 

Plow the ground in the autumn or else early in the spring. 
Turned over sod — clover, timothy, or blue-grass — makes an ideal bean 
soil. Work it over on the top occasionally to germinate and kill 
weeds and keep the ground moist. In overturned sod there is much 
less likelihood of weeds, and the decayed plant food holds moisture. 

Plant the seed with a bean drill or an ordinary grain drill from 
28 to 30 inches apart, and about 2 inches deep. From 6 to 8 quarts 
of seed per acre is a good allowance. 

Cultivate with a slant-toothed light harrow, as soon as the beans 
show. If you can, use this a second time. The rest of the cleaning 
may be done by a cultivator. After bloom, do not touch. The best 
machine for harvesting large crops is the bean harvester, which 
cuts the stalk off just above the surface of the ground. Do the work 
in the forenoon, and the beans can be thrown in heaps later. 

Thresh beans with a thresher made for this purpose. Or the 
ordinary grain separator may be used if some of the teeth are re- 
moved. 

Twenty bushels per acre is considered a good crop, and thirty- 
five bushels a larsre one. 



106 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Bean straw and unsalable beans make good sheep fodder. The 
greatest bean-raising section lies in Central New York. There I have 
seen clover-sod turned over in the fall of one year, after two crops 
that cut about four tons of good hay to the acre. The next year this 
was plowed and fertilized, with twenty-five loads of manure per acre 
and from two to four hundred pounds of phosphate drilled in with 
the seed bean. In this way, from thirty-five to forty bushels of beans 
per acre is a frequent return. Bean elevators are very numerous in 
Monroe and Genesee counties along the railroads. Thousands of 
women are employed here sorting beans. Five cents per pound for 
all the poor beans pays them at least $1.00 per day. These are sold 
to the farmers for stock purposes. 

Bean stubble makes good land for fall and winter wheat. Eight 
to twelve quarts of medium red clover seed, when it is not mixed with 
other grass seed, sowed on this land the following spring will give 
two crops of hay averaging from 3^/^ to 4 tons per acre. 

Rows of beans should be far enough apart to be cultivated when 
they are ripening to get perfect beans. A heavy clay soil is not favor- 
able for bean culture. The bean does not take much value from the 
soil, and it can therefore be used to advantage with other garden 
crops, or it can be planted at intervals of about ten days until you 
have two or three plantings. Should the first planting be lost from 
frost, the second one will be likely to be all right. Replant the one 
lost, and continue to plant for all the first half of summer. Dry 
beans, such as kidney, or marrow, may be planted in the cornfield 
along the hills after the corn is up and has been cultivated once or 
twice. 

Lima Beans. 

Lima beans need a good soil and a sunny spot. Plant when the 
ground is warm, in rows four feet apart and six inches space in the 
row. If you plant in hills, put three or four beans in hills three feet 
apart. A top-dressing of poultry manure, wood ashes, fertilizer or 
compost around the plants will greatly hasten growth and improve 
quality of yield. If lima beans are planted in a too heavy soil, how- 
ever, and the season is very wet, they are likely to rot. In that case 
the best thing to do is to replant at once. 

Plant with the eye of each bean downward. The dwarf limas are 
a good variety, because much easier to take care of. Among these 
Burpee's bush lima is a standard. The pole limas will be helped 
along by applying liquid manure once a week until the pods begin to 
set. After that apply once every two weeks. Tie the vines to the 
poles about every ten days, if they don't twine well, and cultivate 
often. 

If you want lima beans for seed, select those that mature first at 
the bottom of the poles, even if the pods do not hold four or more 
beans. Earliness is a greater requisite for seed purposes than the 
size of the pods. Choose seed from the heaviest bearing vines, also. 
Keep watch of pole limas to see that the lateral shoots are kept prop- 
erly tied. The varieties of lima beans do not make much difiference 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 107 

in the time of maturity, but pinch off the tops as they reach the upper 
end of the poles. This will increase the number of laterals and help 
the blossoms to develop. The first of August is about as early as 
lima beans may be expected. 

Wax beans or string beans should be gathered clean as soon as 
fit for use. This keeps the plants bearing longer. They also may be 
planted again and again until six weeks before frost is due. Cultivate 
and hoe very often, but only when the vines are perfectly dry. In 
hoeing draw the soil up towards the plants. 

Anthracnose, or rust, on wax beans, is apt to be found more in 
damp seasons. The spores remain in the soil so that it is often best 
to select new ground for wax bean growing. 

Cucumbers. 

The gardener who wants to have success with cucumbers should 
get Farmers' Bulletin No. 254 on "Cucumbers." For very early 
cucumbers the hotbed is necessary. Sow in March or April 1. Trans- 
plant to a moist, rich loam, in hills four by six feet apart. Several 
plants, at least ten, can go in a hill, but thin out to about four when 
they throw out runners. Cultivate well and gather before they ripen 
with a sharp knife, whether you need them or not. They can be plant- 
ed in succession. For pickles, from June until the middle of July is 
the 'season. The Bordeaux mixture is usually needed for the cucum- 
ber beetle. Put it on the vines with the sprayer in proportion of three 
ounces to the gallon. 

Cucumbers rarely do well on old land. One large grower whom 
I know tells me that he clears up every year three acres of his land 
so that he may have fresh ground. On this he puts a large quantity 
of fertilizer, and cultivates thoroughly, harrowing both ways. By 
hilling up and using poultry droppings on each hill, he gets large 
yields for the factory, and has realized handsome profits. Two 
hundred bushels of cucumbers can be grown on an acre of land. 

Another cucumber grower gives this advice : In light soil do 
not put cucumber seed in hills. Make a hollow about fourteen or six- 
teen inches in diameter and space the land in six-foot marking so 
the plants will absorb rain where, if planted in hills, the water would 
run off and away from the roots. The quantity of cucumbers mer- 
chantable depends upon the number of times the fruit is picked, which 
should be often. 

Cabbage. 

Farmers' Bujletin No. 433 should be read by every cabbage 
grower, whether for small or large plots. Cabbage needs a very rich 
soil. In fact you can hardly get too rich a home for ^our cabbage 
plants. For outdoor seed sowing from April 15 to May 1 is the usual 
time. Plant for fall and winter cabbage from the first to the tenth of 
July. If you are growing for commercial cabbage raising, and your 
soil is poor, a dressing of sixty tons of manure per acre is advised, 
and this should be well rotted. Turn this under in very narrow fur- 
rows, in order to break up the soil fine. Harrow several times and set 



108 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

plants in rows two and one-half feet apart and two feet apart in the 
row. 

Brussels sprouts and, cauliflower are grown exactly like cabbage. 
The small moth which attacks cabbages can be coaxed away from 
the cabbage by growing millet around the cabbage patch. 

A cabbage crop planted where the hay crop has been poor, and 
has been cut early, will often prepare the soil well for the next year's 
corn, as well as give you a late cabbage harvest that will go far to 
make up for the loss in forage crop. Cabbages are as good as roots 
for feeding stock and may be left out till very cold weather is near. 

To keep cabbage through the early winter, standing in the 
ground, the gardener usually pulls the cabbage enough to break the 
main roots, when they begin to burst. This will stop the growth. 
Then either plow or dig in dry land a trench two feet deep and eight- 
een inches in width. Scatter six inches of loose straw in the trench. 
Then place the cabbages in the trenches heads down. Leave all 
leaves and roots on, and bury the first layer thoroughly in a heavy 
covering of straw — with dirt over this, then more straw and more 
dirt. This will keep your cabbage fresh and free from frost even in 
zero weather. The same method can be used for potatoes, mangel- 
wurtzels, beets, turnips, carrots and all kinds of root vegetables. Dig 
the pit a little deeper, fill with vegetables in a layer, put on straw two 
or three feet thick, follow with dirt, then eighteen inches of straw, 
then dirt thickly and heavy covering of stable manure. This keeps 
the crop for the spring market. 

Pumpkins. 

Pumpkins can be planted with corn, putting a seed in every sec- 
ond hill of every other row. However, other and easier methods are 
often followed. Pumpkins as stock food for hogs are excellent. They 
are great helps in securing a balanced ration, and are a splendid 
cholera preventive. By carefully selecting the seeds as to size, quality 
and thickness, planting with horse planter, well mixing seeds and 
corn together in the planter and giving only such attention to the 
cultivation of the pumpkin as the corn field gets, a fine yield of prize 
pumpkins can be had with less work than by hand planting. It 
should be remembered, though, that some horse planters will not 
plant pumpkin seeds. 

Keep the best of the pumpkins for seed, dry them well, and use 
for next season's planting selecting only the best seed. Pumpkins 
can be left out in the field until freezing weather. Then haul to the 
hay mow the best and soundest and keep for late feeding. The others, 
even if frozen in the field, will be eaten by the hogs, after cutting up 
by the ax. Hogs never tire of them. 

Many farmers object to the planting of pumpkins with corn. 
They think they are a damage to the corn crop, and always advise 
either planting pumpkins by themselves or raising them in the potato 
field. If this last way is adopted put in the seed every sixth row. 
skipping from ten to twelve hills. This method does not injure the 
potato crop at all. 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 109 

If pumpkins are planted in hills by themselves, plant eight feet 
apart each way, and cultivate well. They are much sweeter. 

Egg Plant. 

The culture and general treatment of egg plant are about the 
same as for tomato plants, though they are not so easy to grow. 
Plant the seed in a hotbed or in the kitchen in early March ; or small 
plants may be bought in the cities at this time. Set out in a deep 
loam soil, which has been thoroughly plowed and is well drained, 
when the plants are from six to eight inches high. Set two feet apart 
each way and water freely until the plants are well set. About 
fifteen plants are enough for a good sized family. Cultivate often and 
thoroughly. You can begin to use egg plant when it is only half 
grown, and it can hang on the plants for some time without losing 
its food value after ripening. 

However, in growing for market, in order to be pretty certain 
that egg plant will prosper, after the early sown seed has developed 
its first leaves, transplant to pots before setting out in open ground. 
Or, if you buy your plants be sure to buy in pots and not in boxes. 
Grow in hills of sandy loam, well fertilized with market fertilizer 
mixed with compost. Cultivate very often, but do not keep the 
ground moist. A dry soil is best. The hills should be about three 
feet apart for the standard variety, about two for the dwarf kind. 
Each vine should yield three or four fruits. After these are set pick 
ofif any further blossoms and nip off the end of the vine. For mar- 
ket use the dwarf black comes earliest. The white is a good variety 
for home gardening. Seeds can be planted outside the first week in 
May, if kept from chilling in a warm and even temperature. 

Melons. 

The muskmelon season is apt to be a short one in all sections 
north of the late and early frost belts. This fruit must be up and 
growing well by the last of May in order to escape fall frosts. Select 
a light soil for your crop, if possible. The hills must be specially 
prepared in heavy soil. Make holes five feet apart, one foot deep and 
about a foot and a half each way. Fill in the bottom with about six 
shovelfuls of soil and manure (poultry manure is specially recom- 
mended), well mixed together. Press this down hard with the feet 
and add a layer of about two inches of pulverized soil. Sow the 
seeds on this ; cover with about an inch more of soil Use plenty of 
seed — fifty is not too many. Thin to about eight or ten, after the 
second pair of leaves come. After they start to vine, you will not 
be troubled so much by the insects that attack the plants just as 
they appear, and you can pull out all but three or four of the strong 
plants. Don't try to raise pumpkins and muskmelons at the same 
time, as the pollen mixes. If the season is a late one, liquid manure 
each week and removing all the fruits that set, over the first half- 
dozen of each hill may help in forcing growth. Pinching the ends of 
the vines after they reach three feet is also good. A light applica- 



110 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

tion of bone meal worked into the hills will help greatly. This is 
true of other vines also. 

Watermelons always succeed best when the season is hot and 
dry. Look out for cut worms in time and try air slacked lime around 
the plants. Sometimes a little worm that develops from the striped 
squash bug eats the roots of the vines. For these the lime is good. 
For the cut worms try wrapping the young stems with heavy paper 
stuck down about two inches into the soil. 

Celery. 

No better or more complete directions for growing celery can be 
given for beginners in celery raising than those found in one of the 
Bulletins of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and written by 
W. R. Beattie. Mr. Beattie says that, "for early celery, throughout 
the northern states, a planting should be made in the house during 
January or February, but for the main crop the seed may be sown in 
a frame or hotbed, or in the open ground six weeks or two months 
later. In the latitude of Washington, D. C, good celery can be grown 
from seed sown as late as the middle of May, and to the southward 
still later. 

"For plants from which the main crop is to be planted, sow the 
seeds in a cold frame or in the open ground. Several methods are 
in vogue for starting celery plants in the open ground, and the one 
selected should depend entirely upon the scale on which the crop 
is to be grown. One plan is to sow the seed broadcast in a bed 
about three feet wide, and of any desired length, from which the 
plants may be transplanted to another similar bed, and again to the 
open field, or they may be thinned and allowed to remain in the seed 
bed until the time for setting in the open ground where they are to 
mature. Another method is to sow in drills, 10 or 12 inches apart, 
and cover very lightly by sifting soil, or by passing a roller along 
the drill after the seed has been dropped. When the seedlings are 
well started they may be thinned out and allowed to remain until 
planted in the field. Plants grown in this manner require very little 
attention, as they can be worked by means of a wheel hoe or other 
hand cultivator. 

"The method now in use by most large growers is to prepare a 
tract of land by pulverizing with horse tools and then raking by 
hand, after which the seed is sown broadcast by means of a wheel- 
barrow grass-seed drill. The soil is sometimes pressed down with 
a plank after the seeds are scattered, but some growers maintain that 
there is a decided advantage in leaving the soil slightly uneven, as 
the seeds fall into the shaded places and are protected from the direct 
rays of the sun. The seed will become sufficiently covered by rains 
or watering. Should more than 20 per cent of the seed usually sown 
germinate, it will be necessary to thin out to prevent overcrowding, 
with its attendant injury. To prevent the surface of the soil becom- 
ing too dry, it may be necessary to partially shade the young plants 
during the warm days of early summer, but the shading should never 
be so dense as to cause them to become 'drawn.' 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 111 

"Cultivation should begin just as soon as the newly set plants 
recover from the shock of transplanting and continue in the form of 
level tillage until early September. At that time the 'handling' opera- 
tion may begin, which consists in drawing the loose earth up to the 
plants with a hand hoe or throwing it up about the plants with a 
celery hiller or shovel cultivator. This causes the plants to grow 
more upright and facilitates the work of blanching. 

"If a very rich soil is had, and means of applying water is con- 
venient, a portion of the celery crop should be grown by the 'new 
method.' This consists in setting the plants six inches apart in rows 
ten inches distant. The plants soon occupy the entire area, while 
the tops cover the stalks to such an extent as to shut out the light 
sufficiently to blanch them without the aid of boards or soil, as is 
necessary when the crop is grown by the old method. Soils not rich 
and moist are unsuited for the new method, but those in a high state 
of cultivation and with facilities for watering will yield stalks as 
good, if not better, than those grown in the usual way. 

"There are a number of ways to bleach celery, but the easiest 
method to follow is bleaching with boards. Anything that will ex- 
clude the light from the stalks will cause them to crisp and whiten. 
Heavy paper wrapped about the stalks or a tile pipe placed over each 
plant is as satisfactory a method as any in the home garden where 
only a few plants are raised. Celery bleached by banking earth up 
about the stalks is by far the best, but usually it is better to sacrifice 
quality for the extra labor incurred. When celery has reached its 
full size or nearly so it should be growing in an upright direction 
from the earth that has been pulled toward the stalks during the 
past few weeks. To whiten the plants and fit them for the table two 
ten-inch-wide boards should be set upright, one either side of the 
row and running lengthwise with it close to the stalks. By passing a 
wire about both boards at intervals of every ten feet or so the 
boards will be held in position. If there are any open spaces between 
the earth and the boards, soil should be banked up sufficiently to ex- 
clude all light. The tops of the plants ought to be left sticking out 
between the boards and enough space left to allow the plants to con- 
tinue their growth. It requires the stalks from ten days to three 
weeks to bleach." 

Storing Celery. 

November is a good time to dig the table celery for storage. 
Celery intended for this purpose need not be bleached. Draw the 
earth up against the plants so that they will keep upright. When the 
nightly freezeups come dig your trench so deep that the tops will 
be covered, and about a foot wide. Put the plants close together in 
this, slanting a little from the perpendicular, and having the soil loose 
at the bottom. Put them in rows and throw a good amount of earth 
over each row of roots before putting in the next row. Cover trench 
with a layer of boards crosswise, leaves over this and soil upon the 
leaves as cold weather advances. When you have from eight inches 
to a foot of soil above, cover the soil with long manure. Green va- 



112 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

rieties of celery will keep until late in the winter or early spring, if 
in perfect condition when stored. The white stalked sort will keep 
two months or so. Celery for late fall use, in a moderate climate, 
can be left out in the garden until almost New Year's, if well banked 
with boards or earth. 

In fact, as a general rule, leave the celery in the ground, in a 
dry soil, until you get temperatures of 12 degrees below freezing. 
In a damp soil from three to four degrees. To take it up, plow a 
furrow from each side of row and loosen with spading fork if quan- 
tity is large ; if small, use spading fork only. It may be stored in 
boxes in one corner of a cave or in cellar in trenches. In whichever 
way, a little dirt or sand around the roots to keep them moist is 
plenty. Give plenty of fresh air and light occasionally if wanted for 
family use, but if for market keep in dark, warm place and it will 
bleach out faster. 

When celery begins to rot in the trenches, look it over care- 
fully and use up the decaying stalks as rapidly as possible. The 
sound ones can be retrenched if there is~ienough to make that desirable. 

Nitrate of soda applied at the rate of about 150 pounds per acre 
is excellent for celery growth. Use it at least twice, at about a 
three weeks' interval, after plants are well started. Sprinkle lightly 
along one side of each row and cultivate well afterward. But in cul- 
tivating celery be careful not to disturb the roots of the plants dur- 
ing their early growth. Shallow and frequent cultivation is best. 

Miscellaneous. 

Salsify, or oyster plant, can be grown with good success, as it 
is very hardy and is improved by freezing. It should be planted in 
rows sown thickly, in loose, mellow soil, and covered not more than 
three-quarters of an inch. The fleshy, tap root is the edible portion. 
If it sends off shoots from the root the ground is not right. Cultivate 
well and keep ground moist and rich. It will grow until late in the 
fall, and unless winters are very severe, can be left out through the 
winter sending up good stalks the next spring. If very far north 
the roots can be pitted. 

Parsnips need a deep, rich soil, well pulverized. Sow in rows 
about 18 inches apart and about an inch deep or a little less. Weed 
carefully as they appear and cultivate often until about three inches 
high. Then thin to six inches apart. Parsnips need constant cultiva- 
tion. They are improved by freezing, and can be left in the ground 
through the winter, after taking out what is needed for the winter.' 
Or they can be stored in pits. 

Carrots for early crops, short rooted, should be sown in April or 
May in drills a foot apart. A rather light soil will do fairly well for 
carrots, but it must be warm and fertile. Thin to about two inches. 
For a main crop of the longer rooted variety, sow in succession from 
May to July 1st and row from 16 to 20 inches apart, thinning to from 
2 to 4 inches. 

Water cress must be grown in running water, or in a pond with 
inlet and outlet. Seed can be sown in July or August by drawing 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 113 

out the water from the bed where they are to be sown. Sow at right 
angles to the course of the water, and six or eight inches deep. Scat- 
ter seeds in the bottom, and do not turn water over them again 
until they have begun to grow. 

When cuttings or old plants are used they should be planted in 
the bottom of the bed a few inches apart previous to allowing the 
water to flood the beds. The cuttings should be tied to stakes and 
the stakes stuck into the bed. This method is followed in the At- 
lantic states. 

A simpler method, which has met with success in the West, is 
to sow the seed in cool, moist soil in the early spring, or if a shal- 
low, slow running stream or ditch is near, the seed may be sown 
within the same near the bank. When sown in a location of this kind 
it grows luxuriantly for years. 

Sow parsley seed in shallow drills in the early spring as a border 
for your vegetable plot. If later in the season, and it is wanted for 
winter use, sow in good soil in a box, in rows about six inches apart, 
and cover one-half inch deep. Keep moist, and when the plants ap- 
pear about two inches high, thin to two inches apart. This box can 
be kept out until late in the fall, and when in the house should be 
kept in a sunny window. Sprinkle frequently to keep away plant 
lice. 

Wintering of Vegetables in Cold Climates. 

There is a tremendous loss by growers of vegetables during the 
winter, either because of the lack of knowledge of how to keep them 
or because of carelessness. It is a well known fact that at certain sea- 
sons certain classes of produce are a drug on the market and prices 
are correspondingly low. Now if it were possible to preserve these 
until late winter or early spring a surprisingly good price can often be 
secured. This very thing can be done, and done as successfully here 
as it can be back east, by following out the instructions given below. 

Choose a location where no surface water collects, preferably a 
mound or side hill and let this be protected, if possible, from the bleak 
winds. Now dig a pit 3 or 4 ft. in depth by 6 to 8 ft. in width, and 
make it long enough to accommodate the vegetables which are laid 
in to within 6 inches of the top soil. These are then covered by 6 
inches of hay or straw. Over this, but not resting on the vegetables, 
planks or poles are placed to provide the air chamber, and these in 
turn are covered with more hay or straw to a depth of 4 ft. and ex- 
tending out about 6 ft. on all sides. Next, 12 or 18 inches of dirt are 
placed on this straw and the whole rounded ofif to shed any water in 
case of thaws in winter. On top of this, as an extra precaution, are 
placed 3 or 4 ft. of horse stable litterings, packed very close. 

All kinds of vegetables can be kept from freezing when taken 
care of in this fashion and they will be as fresh in the spring as they 
were in the fall, and will bring far higher prices. 

If it is thought necessary, a covering of tar paper or "ruberoid" 
can be placed on top of the planks before the second covering of straw 
is put on. 



114 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Vegetable Pests — The Cutworm or Grub. 

There are two kinds or species of these cutworms. One is dark 
in color. The other is a yellowish white. The dark colored one 
does his work by cutting- the plant off just above the ground. They 
will often cut a number of plants in a very short time. Sometimes 
they can be found concealed in the dirt near the plant they have 
destroyed. The light colored ones do their work in the ground, 
sometimes about an inch or more under the ground. They cut or 
eat plants the same season until the plants are quite large. As a 
general thing they are found by removing the dirt from the plants 
they have lately cut off. I have known of farmers in the East going 
over their corn fields and digging the worms out from under the hills 
of corn. Sometimes there would be from two to six or eight in a 
hill. This course would insure a good crop of corn. Wood ashes 
and land plaster put on corn before it comes up is a good preventive. 

Salt is good, sown from five to six bushels to the acre before the 
crop is put in, if you want to keep the worms from garden plants. 
When planting cabbage, tomatoes, or plants of this order, put a 
piece of paper loose around the stalk of the plant. Let it go down in 
the ground an inch or two, and above the ground the same number 
of inches or more. This will keep off the cutworm and prevent any 
serious harm. 

Crows are worth their weight in gold to the farmer. They pick 
up and eat off worms and grubs. One of the best farmers that I 
know shelled corn on his cornfield, after planting, for the crows. He 
would sow a few quarts over the field, and if they were liable to eat 
this up before the planted corn got too big to pull, he would shell and 
sow more corn for the crows. While the crows were feeding on 
this corn they were picking up thousands of worms that destroyed 
crops. Every bushel of corn that this man sowed on his cornfield 
for the crows, was worth five dollars per bushel in the long run. 
Laws for the protection of crows would be a safeguard for the 
farmer. It would be better for all of the people if there were more 
crows and birds in the country. 

In gardens where the cutworms are very bad, a good method is 
to place blocks and chips of wood around among the vegetables. 
In the morning these may be turned over and large numbers of 
worms killed. They would rather hide under such things than dig 
down into the ground. They evidently detest work as well as some 
men. 

Probably the best remedy is the use of poisoned grasses, cab- 
bage leaves or clover. Make a Paris green or London purple solu- 
tion, say a tablespoonful to a bucket of water. Saturate the grasses 
and in the evening scatter the poisoned material between the rows. 
The worms will eat this and die. 

Always use the necessary precautions in handling poison. 

One part of Paris green to twenty parts of wheat shorts, spread 
on the surface of the ground and covered with bunches of green 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 115 

clover or other grass will also kill cutworms. Plowing the garden in 
the fall is also recommended to get rid of these pests. 

For cabbage worms, one ounce of Paris green or London purple 
to six pounds of flour, dusted on the plants when wet with dew is 
a good preventive for young plants. Pyrethrum powder, dry, is 
recommended after they begin to head. The ordinary flour used 
for domestic purposes can be made effective here. Hot water at 150 
degrees has also been recommended, used as a spray. Slacked lime 
is also a remedy. 

Young tomato plants have one enemy that, if left to do its work 
unchecked, will soon sap all the vitality from the plant. This is a 
tiny black beetle often wrongly called a fly. It does not trouble 
the plants while they are in the house, but as soon as set out of 
doors, even while they are in boxes before being transplanted to the 
open ground, the beetles appear in great numbers, and in a few days 
will work great havoc. 

When the pea vines are wet with dew dust with powdered helle- 
bore for worms. A few worms can be picked ofif. 

Snails that attack tomatoes can often be trapped by leaving slices 
of beets, turnips or like root vegetables among the plants at night. 
An early morning's visit will insure finding many of the pests on the 
slices. Orange peel used in the same way is said to be even better, 
as a snail will keep on feeding on this after light comes instead of 
going to its hole. 

The borer of the squash, pumpkin and other vines is best fought 
by catching the moths, which fly only by daytime. They are about 
an inch long, of a peculiar tint of olive green, and may be found after 
sundown on the upper side of the leaves near their base. A good 
way to cheat the borer is to allow the vines to form new joint roots 
by covering the joints with soil. Keep looking for the borers also 
at the ground near the base of the plant, and dig out with a knife. 



CHAPTER IX 
Corn ana Small Grains 

Corn Planting. 

LAND intended for corn planting should be fall plowed and then 
must be surface worked very early in the following season to 
prevent the formation of lumps and crusts. Deep plowing 
comes a little later, followed by double harrowing and plank- 
ing or rolling in order to produce a level surface. Plant about the mid- 
dle of May, and use the drill method with the horse planter, if you are 
willing to cultivate often, in fact, almost constantly at first. If not, 
then the hill plan takes less attention, but also returns less yield. Row 
north and south. If the field has been made ready, as it should be, be- 
fore planting, use the smoothing harrow afterward. If it is lumpy, 
cultivate both ways. Then harrow every three or four days until the 
corn is up. Sometimes, in the case of heavy rains, the field will need 
cultivation oftener. After the corn shows, the weeder, used at least 
every week, twice a week is better, follows. After that the surface 
cultivator. If rain brings up the weeds too fast, the shovel cultivator 
may be used until the corn is six inches high. 

Sow in season, therefore, upon your well prepared seed-bed only 
the best and tested seed which you know to be well suited to your 
locality. Northern grown seed corn, potatoes and fruit trees are the 
only seeds and plants to use in the North. Southern seed corn can be 
used, though it will not ripen the first few seasons. But by selection 
of the ripest ears each fall a very good and adaptable corn can be 
grown in time. When hardy seed, however, can be had right at hand, 
why not use that? Then, by eternal vigilance, cultivation and selec- 
tion improve this each year. This is the only way to get bumper 
crops. Corn with less than about fifteen per cent, of moisture does 
not germinate while in storage. 

The corn crop in 1908 was 2,668,651,000 bushels on about one 
hundred millions of acres. This means an average per acre of only 
about twenty-six bushels. 

The distance for planting corn in any particular soil should be 
fully decided on before adjusting the planter, and after planting and 
adjusting for accurate and regular planting do not plan for thinning 
out later. This work must be done by hand, and for large fields this 
is too expensive as to labor. If the seed has been properly tested it 
should show a germination of 95 per cent. Given seed of this quality 
and proper planting the stand of corn will be all that is desired in any 
ordinary corn-growing weather. If the season is very unfavorable to 
growth after planting in the most careful manner it may be best to 



CORN AND SMALL GRAINS 117 

replant again, instead of trying to fill in vacant spots by hand planting. 

The soil for corn should be rich in plant food. A good fertilizer 
is ordinary barn yard or stable manure and potash. I would recom- 
mend using about four loads of manure and 100 pounds of muriate of 
potash per acre. Scatter this broadcast and harrow it in. I believe 
this is the best method. 

The planting should be done as soon as the danger from late 
spring frosts is past and the weather settled. Plant as early as pos- 
sible in May. Do this for several reasons : 

First. To conserve the spring moisture ; corn uses water enough 
to cover the land it is grown on 10 inches in depth. 

Second. Should the crop be a failure due to frost, drouth, poor 
seed, or worm-eaten seed, it may be replanted and come out all right. 

Third. For early planting the corn will mature and ripen before 
the early frost in the fall. 

When planting in hills to be rowed both ways, plant in rows from 
4 to 6 feet apart, and plant from 4 to 6 feet apart in the rows. This 
mode of planting will cause the stock to bear a greater number of ears 
and will be much larger in size of ears and kernels, and the small ears 
called nubbins will entirely disappear. Also this method of planting 
will supply more moisture and sun, and therefore the corn will ripen 
more evenly. There should be in every hill from three to four good 
stalks in order to secure a large and paying crop. 

Cultivation. 

This method of planting makes cultivation easier and also the 
moisture is retained in case of drouth. The cultivation should begin 
in about three days after the planting and be continued until the ears 
on the stalks are all set. For the first cultivation use a weeder ma- 
chine, then a cultivator. In the rainy season it will take from 12 to 24 
hours usually for the weather to settle and the water to run into the 
ground, then begin the cultivating. This will form the reservoirs for 
holding the moisture during a continued drouth, and the only way to 
hold the moisture is continued cultivation throughout the entire sea- 
son. The last deep cultivation should be from three to five inches 
deep, so as to hold the rain fall. 

Do not allow any weeds in your corn fields, as they are great rob- 
bers of plant food and moisture. 

If farmers plant and care for corn after this method it will revolu- 
tionize the corn growing of the country. 

Potatoes should be cultivated in the same manner, and the cul- 
tivation should continue until they ripen or until very late in the 
autumn. 

One suggestion as to corn breeding that should be made is not 
to put too much stress on the regular rows of corn in an ear at the 
expense of utility. Large yields of sound corn are what the practical 
farmers wants for stock feeding. Let the specialist attend to the mat- 
ter of regular kernels. But the man who is working for commercial 



118 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

returns needs to put his efforts into getting rid of rank stalks and 
growing his seed corn on special patches where he can develop good 
points. Corn breeding is needful, but don't go off on a tangent about it. 

Cultivating Tools. 

For shallow working in fields of growing corn, when the plants 
are a foot high, the combined implements which can be quickly 
changed to four, six and eight shovels and have surface working at- 
tachments and blades are the best. The set of ten small shovels is 
good also. All these are now sold at a reasonable price. By the use 
of these, working the soil two or three inches deep, cultivation late in 
the season can be done to satisfaction. Any cultivation which gives 
the outside roots air and sunshine is always needed for corn. Never 
hill up corn but work with the cultivator as close to the stalk as pos- 
sible without tearing the stalk until corn is at least two feet high. 
Then throw up a little dirt to keep down weeds and cultivate as level 
as possible after that. 

Care must be exercised on early cultivation that the roots of the 
corn be not hurt or pruned off. It has been proved that if the roots 
are cut off to a depth of 3 inches and 6 inches from the hill that the 
crop is damaged 6 bushels to an acre — if cut 4 inches from the hill 
the damage done reaches 18 bushels. Any method of cultivation 
which does this should be changed. 

A weeder is an essential on a farm. For the cornfield it should 
be put in as soon as the corn shows above the crust of the earth. 
Use it on sowed grain as soon as it is up from three to four inches. 
One farmer tried it successfully May 6 on oats just well above ground, 
which had been sown on fall-plowed land. Run the weeder first across 
the drill rows and then the same way that the grain was sown. Set 
just deep enough to stir the surface of the ground without disturbing 
the grain roots. By going over twice the entire surface of the soil is 
stirred. 

Field Corn. 

Field corn should be planted from two and a half to four feet apart 
and four spears in a hill is a great plenty. Work as soon as the hills 
can be seen. Stir the dirt with a weeder when the corn is very small. 
The more stirring up of the soil the faster the corn will grow. Do 
not hill too much nor put in too much seed. Level and flat cultiva- 
tion is the best for corn. Cut as soon as thoroughly glazed and shock 
in good sized shocks. 

But if it is to be put in the silo it should be cut as soon as it com- 
mences to glaze and put directly into the silo. Silo corn should be 
rowed north and south, and planted about twice as thick as for husk- 
ing. The land should be heavily fertilized ; twenty or twenty-five 
loads of manure to the acre on good land, but poor land will need 
forty loads per acre. Plant the ordinary field corn from the middle of 
May to the middle of June. Four days after planting use the weeder 
and continue its use until the corn is three or four inches high. Then 
cultivate thoroughly. 

For silo twenty-five feet in diameter and forty feet high, two hun- 



CORN AND SMALL GRAINS 119 

dred tons will be needed. The large evergreen corn is good for silage. 
The silo preserves both the stalk and the ear, and the ensilage settles 
in about twelve days. For labor reckon one man and four horses to 
cut the corn, six or eight men with teams and wagons to haul, one 
man to feed the machine and one in the silo. 

Sweet or field corn intended for fodder can also be stacked in the 
fall by sprinkling into a load of corn a quart of salt or more. Then 
add one-half a load of good dry straw to the top of the load of corn. 
Smetimes it is better to lay the butts of the corn or corn fodder all one 
way. The top of the bundle is not so apt to heat. In the middle, 
where the ear is, there is the most danger from heating. 

It is very important to cut corn at just the proper time, if both the 
stover and the grain are to be used for stock food. For stacking cut 
shortly after the kernels are well dented and the leaves begin to dry, 
but do not let the ears get ripe. For silage the kernels must also be 
well dented and just beyond the glazing stage. At this time the stover 
is at its greatest food value and yield. But left until the grain is per- 
fectly ripe the stover value decreases. 

Fodder Corn. 

All fodder corn for daily rations should be planted in drills from 
3 to 4 feet apart. The rows should run parallel north and south and 
be well cultivated. By exposing the growing corn to the sun as much 
as possible there will be more nutriment for the dairy cows. Sixteen 
quarts of seed per acre should be enough for this method. 

Fodder corn will grow almost anywhere in the northwestern 
states. From six to eight tons of cured fodder per acre can be raised 
where only one and a half or one ton of timothy or prairie hay will 
grow. Common field corn gives the best results and grows the best. 
Plant from about May 20 to the middle of June in single or double 
rows at the rate of about twelve quarts per acre. A common grain 
shoe drill or corn planter with drilling attachment for planting can be 
used. Harrow after the corn is planted, and even when six inches 
high, with a light harrow or weeder. After the corn is up, however, 
the harrowing should be done in the middle of the day when the stalks 
are tough. Harrowing in the morning is likely to break off some of 
the stalks. 

Cut before frost or, if frost catches it, a day or two after. If left 
longer after frost it will become dry, lose many of the leaves and a 
large portion of its nutrient value go back into the roots. 

Corn fodder is equal to the best of hay if it is cut in the proper 
time and cured. 

A Home-Made Fodder Cutter. 

No one will question the value of cut fodder for sto'ck, and espe- 
cially for horses, although many farmers will not use it because of 
the labor involved in preparing it. The home-made cutter will do 
quite as good work as the more expensive machines and it really does 
not take much time to prepare quite a lot of fodder. To make this 
machine, two boards, each one foot wide and five feet long are re- 



120 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

quired. Nail these together in V-shape, then make the legs of pieces 
three feet long, nailing a strip across each, as shown, to keep them 
from spreading. Have the blacksmith make a cutting blade ; it may- 
be formed from an old scythe, arranging it so that a place is reserved 
for the handle and that the cutting portion is about two and one-half 
feet. Bolt a piece of iron at one end to one leg six inches below the 
box and bolt one end of the scythe to the other end of the iron, ar- 
ranging them so that both will work easily. Lay a strip of iron 
against the top of the other leg, with space for the scythe to work in 
easily. The downward slanting motion of the scythe when in use 
will cut the fodder readily if the blade is kept sharp, as it should be. 

Seed Corn. 

We predict that next spring will find a large per cent of the farm- 
ers without good seed corn. We say "good seed corn," for the late 
ripening followed by early frosts has very materially reduced the avail- 
able supply to select from ; and added to this the extreme lateness of 
fall work will prevent a great deal of this being gathered and dried 
out, before freezing weather. This means weakened vitality, and 
much that will not germinate next spring, and a poor stand will proba- 
bly follow. There has never, since corn has been grown in Minne- 
sota, been a better stand than during the past summer. There was 
no other cause for this than the extremely early ripening of last year, 
which rendered the corn mature, well ripened, and thoroughly dried, 
long before the setting in of freezing weather. It is a well established 
fact that any amount of freezing will not injure the germinating quali- 
ties of thoroughly dry corn. If the freezing and thawing of late 
autumn comes as usual, the average seed corn will contain too much 
moisture for its germ to withstand the destructive effects of freezing 
and thawing, and as a consequence we shall have no end of fields next 
year that will show a very poor stand. The only alternative seems to 
he to follow the practice of the old corn raisers, and select the seed 
at once, put it in the chamber over the kitchen, and give it as much 
sunlight and air as possible, or better yet, hang it up on the kitchen 
ceiling for a time ; this may be an annoyance and inconvenience to 
the good housewife, but it means a good stand of corn next year and 
no matter how rich the land or how good cultivation is given, a good 
crop of corn cannot be raised without a good stand. 

A very convenient plan of hanging up corn is to tie it with bind- 
ing twine. Any active boy can string up several bushels per hour. It 
is done by simply making loops very close together and drawing them 
up to hold the ears. It can then be hung up in a dry place, and a good 
stand of corn for next spring is assured, and the vexation of trying to 
find good seed corn will be avoided, and $1.50 or $2.00 per bushel for 
seed will be saved. 

The modern farmer pays more attention each year to the use of 
high grade seed of the best varieties. In many states they recognize 
the great need for improvement in this respect by seed growers' asso- 
ciations. The agricultural colleges are also teaching us a great deal 
in this respect. The farmer himself can do a great deal toward rais- 



CORNANDSMALLGRAINS 121 

ing his own seed-standard by the careful selection of the best kernels 
from his products. Seeds vary from year to year, just as the children 
of a family do. Continued selection, therefore, is very necessary if the 
farmer wants to be sure of good crops. Cut out the tips and butts of 
the seed corn ears. Corn taken from the middle of the ear germinates 
and grows faster, and will give a better yield than that grown from 
the grains at either end of the ear. 

Good Seed. 

A writer for an agricultural journal has the following to say about 
seed corn : 

"There has been a great deal said in regard to good seed and vari- 
ous ways have been devised as to how to secure the best, so I will 
give my way. When the crop is about right to go in the shock I go 
through my field, and from good thrifty stalks, I take the best ears 
and husk and hang in an open shed or building until thoroughly dry, 
when I put away in a bin or in boxes. 

"Still, I have had good results by leaving it hang from fall until 
planting time. Last spring I got a good stand the first planting, while 
most of my neighbors planted from two to three times. 

"Another point. Some seven years ago, I sent to a seed company 
in Wisconsin for an early dent white corn, which proved to be the best 
investment I ever made, as it more than filled my expectations, but 
after planting a few years, it had considerable smut. I went to work 
to eradicate it in the following way, which proved a success. When 
in the field picking seed as stated above, I would not take an ear that 
was close to a smutty one, but far enough away so that I thought it 
had not had any pollen from a stalk that had a smutty ear on. And 
now my corn is almost entirely free from smut. I use the same plan 
in regard to barren stalks with good results. I hope this may be of 
benefit to some brother farmers." 

Getting Good Seed. 
The agricultural stations are especially insistent upon the selec- 
tion of seed corn early. Go down the rows as the corn stands in the 
field, and select from the best stalks the ears of the best form that 
show a thorough ripeness. Slight frosts do not injure thoroughly 
ripened corn, so that the farmer need not hurry up the process of 
selection before the corn is well matured. Do not dry corn in the 
sunlight but store it in a dry place upon racks where it will get plenty 
of air. If necessary use artificial heat to dry before real cold weather 
sets in. Corn thus selected and properly tested will add millions of 
dollars each year to the yields of the corn-growing states. The Iowa 
agricultural station declares that every bad ear planted of seed corn 
means a loss of $6.50, and that $5.00 will buy a bushel" of properly 
tested seed corn. 

Buying Seed. 

Why also do farmers wait until nearly sowing time before buying 
seed. A system of wholesale buying on a co-operative plan put into 



122 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

action some months before the seed is needed, will save several dol- 
lars on the seed bill. Timothy bought in large quantities is of much 
better grade. All pasture grasses and orchard grass, red top, blue 
grass, sorghum cane seed, dwarf Essex rape seed, cow peas and soy- 
beans can be had early. See that the seed you buy is clean, as well 
as bright and dry, and don't experiment with new varieties. Pay a 
few cents more a bushel for the best seed. You will get that back in 
many fold from your yield, other things being equal. And, let me 
add, that the farmer who buys the best seed usually has other things 
equal in his farming. Let the agricultural colleges do the experiment- 
ing and the farmer stick to the standard varieties of corn. 

Testing the seed corn, says this same authority, is neither hard 
nor tiresome. It is done in the winter or early spring, when there is 
plenty of time. The hours spent in testing seed will do more toward 
getting a full crop than weeks of hard work in the field later in the 
season, for, no matter how careful the cultivation or how favorable the 
season, a full crop is not possible if the stand is poor or the vitality 
low. 

It is the plants from the kernels with low vitality that are first 
affected by the drouth, by the heat or the weeds. These plants are 
responsible for more failures and poor crops than anything else. A 
careful germination test shows just what the vitality of each ear is. 
It shows more clearly than anything else what next year's crop will 
be. Record yields are not possible unless seed corn is planted that 
will produce plants with strong root systems as well as strong stalks. 
A glance at properly tested seed corn shows both the sprouts and the 
roots, and no seed should be planted that has not proven in advance 
that it is capable of producing a good ear of corn. 

Testing Seed. 
The farmer need not depend upon the agricultural college, how- 
ever, for testing his seed. He can give the seed at home such con- 
ditions of heat and moisture as nature gives for outdoor growth. Fill 
only a small box with earth such as you use for potting plants, count 
a number of seeds to be tested, and put in the box of earth giving only 
enough water to keep moist, and keeping the box in a warm but not 
too dry place. Covering the box with a piece of paper or cloth will 
hasten germination. Take the sample to be tested from the mass of 
seed to be used, and this will test as to general planting. If a suffi- 
cient number of these seeds sprout and grow up with vigor, the seed 
selected for use will be right for profitable culture. 

Another common method of testing a small number of seeds is to 
use moistened cloth or blotting paper; fold and lay on a plate, plac- 
ing seeds within the fold, so as to keep moist; then invert another 
plate over the whole, keeping seeds warm and moist. Any kind of 
seed may be tested in this way, and it is very interesting to watch 
the experiment. 

It has been figured that an increase of ten bushels of corn to the 
acre would add fifty millions of dollars yearly to the income of the 
Iowa farmers. Iowa devotes ten millions of acres to corn and the 



CORNANDSMALLGRAINS 123 

average price is 50 cents a bushel. See what that would mean. Be- 
sides adding new wealth to the country, the product would be im- 
proved in quality. Other things being equal, these results could be 
accomplished by the use of only tested seed for planting. The farmer 
who puts great care upon the preparation of his land for the seed bed 
and the selection of the best time for planting can no longer lay the 
blame for a bad harvest upon poor seed, because tested seed can be 
obtained now by any one. 

Corn Smut. 

Smut in corn is a plant that grows from spores instead of seeds. 
Wet seasons and low lands are more likely to develop smut than the 
opposite conditions. But if the disease has once started, dry weather 
following will not stop it. If smut in seed corn is suspected immerse 
the corn for a short time in a solution of one pound of copper sulphate 
to one gallon of water. Rotation of crops, however, is one of the best 
methods of reducing the smut infection. By this plan corn can be 
planted on land likely to be free from the spores. The great danger 
from smut is not so much in its injurious efifect upon live stock as 
in its effect upon the profits of the yield from the corn field. The 
spores are easily carried in the air or maintain their life through the 
stomach of an animal. For such and other reasons they distribute 
themselves rapidly, and smut corn is not therefore, a good diet for 
stock. Yet a little smut in corn is not of special harm where the yield 
is large. If you have a yield of 150 to 200 bushels per acre your seed 
corn will be all right, saved from this big crop. Save the best ears, 
and either hang up the braided ears to dry, or husk clean and spread 
out on the floor of any dry building. Good seed can be had from both 
methods. 

The Corn Worms. 

According to Prof. Wheeler, of the South Dakota Experiment 
Station, the corn worm, the corn-ear worm, and the cotton boll worm 
are one and the same. The worm varies in color according to what it 
feeds on, the mature insect being a medium sized moth, which lays its 
eggs at twilight upon any part of the plant. Corn, pumpkins, melons, 
red peppers, beans, peas, gladiolas, geraniums and some other plants 
are sometimes attacked by it, but its work on corn in the Northwest 
is serious, as it not only eats the young corn stalks, but later enters 
the ears and eats the silk. The color of the pest will vary from light 
green to black. Sometimes it is spotted or striped. The only sure cure 
is, apart from fall plowing, to destroy the eggs, to practice rotation of 
crops, using crops which the worm will not feed on. 

Kansas farmers usually raise from 70 to 80 bushels of corn per 
acre, and their methods are worth studying. Great care is taken in 
the selection of seed grown in that latitude. The ground is plowed 
deeply, from six to eight inches, and disked carefully until the soil is 
pulverized to the fine, mellow surface needed to conserve moisture. 
If the ground is rough or soddy a harrow must be used. Plant to a 
depth of three or four inches, first marking with a common corn row 
marker, using for the planting a one-horse corn drill having an attach- 



124 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

ment which can be operated by the driver. Harrow twice, cultivating 
both ways. Several cultivations must follow this, the first one being 
very deep, the second time not quite so deep, with the third quite shal- 
low and farther from the corn. Later cultivating is shallow and only 
to prevent the formation of a crust on the surface through which mois- 
ture escapes. After the corn has been stacked or shocked and wild 
grass has grown turn sheep into the field. They do no serious harm 
to the corn and will eat the weeds and wild grass very close. 

A one horse tool is best for large corn plants, and frequent sur- 
face cultivation with this during the silking and tasseling period is as 
imperative for a perfect harvest as is deep cultivation earlier. 

One bushel of seed corn will plant from five to eight acres. If 
you use "scrub" corn for planting you will probably get about one- 
fifth as much return in ears to every 100 stalks as you will with "pedi- 
greed" corn. 

Why Does Popcorn Pop? 

Why is it that popcorn pops better than a variety of field corn? 
Corn contains in its core, or center part, a trace of volatile oil and 
some water. Heat causes this oil to expand in a gaseous form. The 
outer coating of the kernel is tough enough to bear the process of the 
expanding oil for a moment, until it suddenly bursts, turning the 
partly cooked kernel of corn inside out. 

The reasons that ordinary field corn does not pop so well as that 
variety of corn known as popcorn, are as follows : First, the popcorn 
variety contains more of the volatile oil ; second, its outer coat or crust 
is tougher and will bear more pressure before it bursts ; third, ordi- 
nary field corn is porous. The outer coating has many minute cracks 
and openings that allow the volatile oil to escape without bursting the 
kernel ; fourth, the popcorn kernel being much smaller than the ordi- 
nary kernel, it is better cooked by the same amount of heat, and in 
popping open its contents are flufify and tender, whereas, the ordinary 
corn being imperfectly cooked does not behave so well. However, 
the ordinary corn of the yellow variety will often pop out quite satis- 
factorily, but is greatly inferior to the regular popcorn. 

Popcorn is not a very easily digested food, but with ordinary 
good digestion constitutes a very toothsome and wholesome tidbit. It 
was the staple food of our predecessors, the American Indians. Given 
a few handfuls of parched corn and a little jerk of venison, he was able 
to endure many days of weary march and fatigue. 

The Oat Field. 

Not enough attention is given to the oat crop. Especially is this 
true in the matter of fanning seed oats to secure good seed and in 
the selection of the best soil for sowing the seed. Oats will grow 
on a wide range of soil, but a clayey loam which is well drained is 
the very best. Plow this in the fall if possible, disk harrow both 
ways, and follow with several harrowings with the disk harrow. 
Last year's corn land makes a good spot for oats, granted that it 
has been as heavily fertilized with manure as corn land should be. 



CORNANDSMALLGRAINS 125 

If the plowing must be done in spring, get about this as early as the 
soil can be worked. A field green cropped for winter makes excellent 
oat land for spring. If barnyard manures are put on oat land in the 
spring they must be well rotted and harrowed in rather than plowed. 
If commercial fertilizers are needed, 200 lbs. of nitrate of soda per 
acre, sowed broadcast a month after the seed has been planted will 
greatly increase yields, if the soil is in good state. 

Some of the best varieties of spring oats, as tested at experiment 
stations, have been found to be Silvermine, Texas Rust Proof and 
New White Sensation. These each yielded over twenty-five bushels 
per acre. Early sowing is most important for any variety, as the 
later the sowing the poorer the yield. Oats need the cool of the 
spring, and the crop should be all in by a week after the soil can 
be worked. From two to three bushels of seed per acre are needed, 
according to the capacity of the soil. Drill the seed in about an inch 
deep. 

The value of oats as a forage crop or for haying purposes will 
be greatly increased by sowing one-half bushel peas per acre to two 
bushels of oats. This combination ranks with corn well and has the 
advantage of a much earlier harvest. Cut oats for a fodder crop when 
the tops are just getting brown. At that stage stock will eat tops 
and straw clean, as the early cutting retains the sap in the sheaves. 

Rye In Minnesota. 

Bulletin No. 120, of the Minnesota Experiment Station, gives 
much attention to "Rye Growing in Minnesota," — a state where the 
yield per acre of rye is larger than that of other states. Although the 
acreage of land given to rye growing is smaller than in any other 
state. The dry, sandy loam of Minnesota furnishes an ideal soil for 
rye culture, which is at its worst on wet, heavy land. 

The seed bed must be well prepared by the middle of September 
for poor soil. On ordinarily fertile lands, the last of September will 
do for sowing. If your area is very rich the early part of October 
will be the best time. Allow some variations in this for climates 
where early cold weather sets in by November. The rye plants must 
be of a good height before that season, and therefore on light, poor 
soils early fall seeding is needed. About one bushel of seed per acre 
is a good allowance for such soils. An average field will need about 
one and one-half bushels, but a rich soil can take good care of two 
bushels per acre. 

Plow the ground early in September, unless it has been so treat- 
ed during the previous season that the soil is open and tolerably fine. 
In that case a few good harrowings will get the earth in condition for 
seeding. Rotted stable manure broadcasted before harrowing will be 
the best fertilizer. Rye yields often 30 bushels per acre, but the 
average yield is not half that amount. 

Fall sown wheat and rye make the best early green food for the 
stock. Two plantings of each of these in the fall, one about the first 
of September and another about a month later, sown generously, will 



126 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

bring" a succession of soiling crops early in the spring. Three bushels 
of seed per acre should be used for this purpose, and the soil made 
as rich as possible. All kinds of stock take kindly to rye in the 
spring, but it is apt to give an unpleasant flavor to milk, if dairy 
cows are fed heavily on it. 

Cow-Peas. 

The cow-pea, both as a forage crop and a soil improver, is useful. 
This, though a southern plant, is grown now successfully in northern 
localities, provided the earliest varieties are planted when the ground 
is warm. Cow-pea hay contains about ten per cent protein, thus al- 
most equaling wheat bran in that respect. The cow-pea, however, 
for some varieties, needs about five months of summer weather to 
mature. Therefore, in the northwest, it is not wise to plant the late 
maturing varieties, although they make more than the early kind. 
In the south this pea is often sown broadcast with the growing corn 
just before the last cultivation. Do not plant, anyway, till the ground 
is warm for cow-peas "take cold" easily. Sometimes, where clover 
does not do well, cow-peas make a good substitute as fertilizing 
agencies, though they do not send out such deep roots, and therefore 
do not bring up so much potash and phosphorus from the subsoil. 

Peas, disked in, and oats or barley sown just before they come 
up on the same land will make an excellent soiling crop, and if used 
for that purpose, where Avild oats are on the land, they will be ready 
for cutting before the wild oats are ripe. It would be best to sow 
oats rather than barley for this purpose. Plow the peas under about 
four inches and sow oats broadcast, about one bushel each in pro- 
portion. 

The pea canning industry now furnishes, as a by-product to 
the factories, pea vines as stock food. Pea-vine hay is considered 
better than clover hay, and whether hauled away from the factories 
by the farmers, or made into silage by the factories the hay has 
become quite valuable in some sections. If pea vines are to be cured 
for hay they must be spread on sod land. If put up in stacks they 
must be thoroughly tramped, when decay will not affect the interior 
of the stack. Where possible pea vines are fed to stock in the fresh 
state. 

Cow-Peas Sown for Live Stock, 

Peas and oats sown for live stock ration should be mixed in the 
seed proportion of about two parts peas to one part of oats, as almost 
any good prairie land will grow oats more readily than peas. This 
amount, it must be remembered, will vary with the kind of soil. 
On a stifif clay soil oats will not lodge so much and the crop can 
be cut with a binder. A year or two of trial will soon show what 
proportions to use. If you are growing for young pigs and brood 
sows, it is possible to let the young pigs do the harvesting for you, 
after they have become used to the food. Try a few days of cutting 
and feeding the peas at first. This will be likely to prevent the pigs 
from any danger of overeating when they are turned in the field, and 



CORNANDS MALL GRAINS 127 

they will eat clean as they go — without tramping down the crop. 
Begin the feeding when the peas are about fit for the table. One acre 
should be enough for about 20 or 25 pigs if they are only fed during 
the growing season and for this purpose sow as early in the spring 
as possible in well harrowed ground. Two bushels to the acre, sown 
broadcast, and plowed under as deep as five inches, can be put in 
about two weeks or a little less before the oats are sown. Harrow 
after oats are sown. For small patches of peas a movable wire fence 
is good, especially when two crops are planted. This is always advis- 
able, as peas for feeding in this way are best not matured, being of 
too heating a nature. While feeding peas to young pigs let the pigs 
have plenty of salt and water and skim milk if possible. 

Growing Flax. 

The importance of the flax-seed crop in our future industries is 
becoming more and more an established fact. It is not quite twenty 
years — in 1895, in fact — since experiments were made in this coun- 
try in breeding flax. Using the ordinary flax for foundation stock, 
two classes were bred, one for seed and the other for fiber. Since 
then new varieties have been grown, which have increased the plant 
over 50 per cent in height and seed value. As to the crops grown, 
the Dakotas and Minnesota still hold the banner, North Dakota hav- 
ing reported exceptional yields of as high as thirty-five bushels per 
acre, with eighteen to twenty bushels per acre several years in suc- 
cession. These, however, must not be taken as any ground for aver- 
ages. But they show why the culture of flax is becoming more popu- 
lar and why so many farmers in the Dakotas, and more in Minnesota, 
have been going into the sowing of several sections of land to flax 
raising. From five to sixteen bushels per acre in dry seasons, but 
thirty bushels in a good season, prove that tillage will do much for 
this crop. The fact that the only linen factory in the country is now 
being established at Beloit, Wisconsin, and that it expects to draw 
upon the flax raising districts of the northwest for the supply of flax 
to what will become a large industry is strong evidence of how much 
progress the culture of flax is making. 

Many farmers advocate mixing wheat and flax for seed, in the 
proportion of two parts of wheat and one part flax, five pecks to the 
acre. Or one bushel of wheat may be put in with the drill, per acre, 
and cross seeded with twelve to sixteen quarts of flax. Flax should 
be sowed much more shallow than wheat to secure the best results. 
The mixture of grains is believed to greatly improve the quality of 
the wheat, and thus more disease resisting. Barley and flax together 
are also grown with more or less success. Some of the grass seeds 
sown with flax as a nurse crop, have given good returns, using about 
20 quarts of flax seed per acre. The best yields of flax often come 
from very early seeding when used with clover and timothy in this 
way. It is a mistake to sow flax about corn planting time, or later. 

For raising a paying crop of flax seed, land should be very rich. 
A rotation of clover on manure dressed land, then pasture plowed in 
and flax sown in the following spring after another light top dressing 



128 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

of manure in the fall, will give good prospects for a commercial flax 
crop. Do not repeat the flax sowing again until after another rota- 
tion of corn, oats and clover. Otherwise the soil will furnish you 
chiefly flax wilt. Sod land usually makes the best crop of flax. Treat 
the seed, however, even on broken prairie land, with the formaline 
solution in order to kill any germs of flax wilt. If these go into the 
soil with the seed, the new land will be infected and the probable 
destruction of any future crops of flax on that ground will be the 
result. A new field sown to flax, however, with no resultant flax wilt, 
can be sown to other grains in rotation with profit, and then used 
for flax again, provided good tillage has been observed in the interim. 
Flax takes about as much from the soil as do corn or wheat. The 
general testimony as to flax straw for winter feed for cattle seems 
to be favorable. In a few cases where what seemed to be bad results 
had followed, careful inquiry has shown that foul weeds or mustard 
had become mixed with the straw. Stock fed on flax straw must 
have plenty of water, or the toughness of the straw will cause indi- 
gestion. Flax straw grown on old soil or mixed with pigeon grass 
usually does well as a feed for cattle. However, caution is a good 
practice in using flax straw for fodder for valuable stock. 

Flax matures early, and can follow wheat, oats and barley in the 
order of sowing in the northwest. Its high price and the evidences 
that it will remain high make it of more and more value each year. 

Millet. 

Millet grows best in warm weather, and does better when plant- 
ed after corn planting, and usually while it is dry, though a low, moist 
soil is needed, yet not too moist. I have known millet to be sown, 
in favorable seasons, as late as the end of June. The middle of June 
is a good time to get in the crop in dry weather. If the crop is in- 
tended for dairy cows, sow the German millet in the proportion of 
about one-half a bushel of seed to the acre if the soil is good. More 
seed will be needed on poorer soil, or for sheep fodder. Millet should 
never be fed as the only food. 

Cut millet for cattle and sheep when some of the heads are be- 
ginning to ripen. For horses Hungarian millet is said to be better, 
and this should be cut two or three days later than that for cows. 
Millet should be cured as clover hay is, in the winrow, so that the 
bright green color of the hay will be presered. Hog millet is fine as 
a food for hogs. Siberian millet is an excellent variety, and grows 
under favorable conditions, to the height of four feet. 

Sow the seed broadcast on a fertile and well prepared soil about 
the middle of June. Harrow very lightly, and by the middle of Sep- 
tember the seed will be ripe. Do not allow any variety of millet to 
get too ripe before cutting if it is intended for cow feed or for sheep. 
For pigs, let the grain mature. 

In feeding millet, a proportion of one-third millet and two-thirds 
bran or ground oats is best for milch cows. Never put much corn 
with millet as the two grains are very much alike in their constitu- 
ents. What is called hog millet takes just about the same amount 



CORNANDSMALLGRAINS 129 

of fertility from land in cropping, as does corn, but corn always has, 
as a soil agency, the advantage of the extra cultivation that the land 
receives. 

Good varieties of millet may also be found in the German and 
Japanese. At the Virginia experiment station recently, Hungarian 
millet yielded 3.85 tons per acre, while the German and Japanese 
returned respectively, 2.80 and 2.42 tons per acre. 

Buckwheat. 

In a northwestern climate buckwheat must be sown in June, but 
in milder latitudes sowing in early July will insure a harvest before 
the fall grains are sown. Buckwheat is tender to frost, and needs, 
at least, two and a half months to mature. It does not demand a 
very rich soil, which is doubtless the reason why yields are reported 
in the same locality of such varying amounts — from 15 to 40 bushels. 

For the best fertilizer to add to a poor field where buckwheat 
is to be sown, unleached wood ashes, twenty to twenty-five bushels 
to the acre, broadcasted, will add the lime and potash plant food that 
this grain needs for heavy yields. On such a prepared soil it will pay 
to broadcast and well harrow in three pecks per acre of seed. It 
takes some weeks for the ripening of grain ; for heavy yields, how- 
ever, it is best to cut soon after the first seeds have ripened. 

A half bushel of seed per acre will do on the average soil, for 
June sowing. In this, though, as in every other grain, it costs as 
much to seed, grow and harvest a thin crop as a fat one. Therefore 
try the fertilizing and heavy seeding. Late seedings of buckwheat 
do best when sowed with a drill. 

Barley. 

Barley, which costs somewhat less than oats, is not so satisfac- 
tory a ration for constantly working horses as is oats. Barley should 
be fed whole, and will do very well for horses only at a moderate 
amount of labor. The best barley demands a special kind of sandy 
loam soil with some clay, and a practically rainless climate, at least 
during the harvest season. If grown on a soil similar to that of Min- 
nesota, it can be harvested as a fairly good barley for malting pur- 
poses, by cutting at that first point of ripeness where it is not yet 
quite ripe, and a little of the green shade mixes with the yellow in the 
heads. Shock as soon as cut, in shocks long enough to admit of two 
sheaves, meeting in the center at the butt ends of the sheaves, being 
spread out over the shock below. These two cap sheaves, if spread 
out well at the side, and left to hang over a little at the ends will 
protect from both dews and too hot suns. These cap sheaves should 
not be mixed with the others when the shock is drawn, as the heads 
will be too brown for market prices. 

Barley and rape mixed in proportions of one bushel of barley 
and three pounds of rape seed to the acre make an excellent pig pas- 
ture if pigs are turned into it when the crop is well started, and the 
rape is young. A second tender growth can be had later on, when 
the rape grows too strong, by mowing a part of the field. The barley 
that is not eaten will also often seed again and come up in early fall 



130 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

for a second pasture. Sow plenty in the spring and you can then 
cut back, thus insuring plenty of pasture even in a dry season. 

Barley and oats make an especially good early swine pasture on 
brush land broken in the fall. 

Speltz. 

Speltz (emmer), which is a species of wheat in the chaff, is a 
good yielder and stands dry weather well. The stock like it and 
thrive on it, and it is especially good for growing animals. Equal 
parts of speltz, oats and barley ground and fed together make an 
excellent feeding ration with about five per cent of flax seed added 
before grinding. Some clover hay once a day and a few ears of corn 
are necessary at each feeding. In sowing speltz seed it should be 
remembered that the hulled seed does not germinate so readily as 
the unhulled. On good soil — a black loam with clay subsoil — two 
bushels of speltz seed to the acre should give a full yield of good 
grain from forty to fifty bushels. Mix with oats and a little barley. 
It matures in about the same time as oats, and makes a good stand, 
not being molested by chinch bugs. Speltz will grow fairly well on 
light soils, but yields often forty bushels per acre and occasionally 
from fifty to sixty on rich and thoroughly cultivated land. 

Sorghum Raising. 

The question of raising sorghum for cattle is one that has been 
much discussed of late years. There is no doubt but that for fall 
feeding — from September first until hard freezing sets in — sorghum 
is greatly liked by cattle. They eat it up clean, and I have found it 
better than corn fodder at that time. But to grow sorghum success- 
fully requires a very thoroughly prepared soil. Given this, and the 
right cultivation by a judicious use of the harrow after the seed has 
been sown — taking care not to kill the plants by too late harrowing — 
fine crops of sorghum can be raised. 

The Wisconsin Experiment Station says, recently, that no crop 
which it has grown has furnished "as much food to the acre for dairy 
cows as sorghum, and no crop had given more satisfaction while it 
was being fed." 

Prepare the land for sorghum in the fall previously, and work it 
over several times on the surface in the spring in order to help to 
clean the seed-bed. When growing for dairy food put it in with a 
grain drill, and sow from one to one and one-half bushels per acre. 
Cut with a mower and throw up in small piles within two or three 
days after cutting. Leave in shock till cured and then stock under 
cover. If the sorghum is planted in rows like corn, a common corn 
binder can be used in cutting. 

Sorghum may be fed after freezing, but if frozen too hard it is 
not so good for feeding. If thawed it loses some of its food values. 
Cut the plants at any time desired for hay from the time they come 
into bloom until the seed is in the dough stage. The Minnesota am- 
ber variety is a good one for the north, but there are several excellent 
sorts. The second growth of sugar-cane is apt to be poisonous to 
cattle, or if stunted by dry weather unfavorable results from feeding 



CORNAND SMALL GRAINS 131 

may follow. Sorphum is quite likely to sour in a silo, though there 
are farmers who are able to use it for ensilage. 

Sorghum has many points of profit in its favor as a fodder. Its 
yield is large, its flavor is much relished by cattle and horses, it grows 
in dry weather better than corn, there is no waste in its use and any 
climate where there is not more than three months of frost will grow 
the plant. 

The objections to its culture are the expense of seed and the 
heavy nature of the plant as to handling in harvest time. It also 
needs close attention in the early growing season. An acre of sor- 
ghum requires from fifty to eighty pounds of seed, which can be put 
in with the grain drill. One acre will furnish enough fodder for a 
large amount of stock. Home grown seed is much more reliable as 
to results than that on the market. This can be secured from well 
ripened cane placed in shocks to cure, and the tops not separated from 
the stalks until cold weather. The seed can be easily threshed out 
and cleaned then and stored in dry boxes or barrels where it will not 
heat. 

Wheat Raising. 

Raising wheat is a good business when the yield is from 30 to 
40 bushels per acre. That this can be realized, under proper condi- 
tions of fertility, is shown again and again by the many instances of 
accidental good harvests from plots of land specially fertilized. I 
knew a farmer in one of the Dakotas who harvested from 98 acres 
of a 100-acre piece of wheat a yield of only eight bushels ner acre. 
From the other two acres he threshed 80 bushels. The two acres had 
been hog pasture, and had been plowed and tilled in the previous fall. 
The 98 acres had been sowed to wheat for four successive years with 
no manuring. 

In those four years of only growing wheat the farmer had been 
robbing his land every year of about $300 worth of fertility, granted 
that the eight bushel per acre yield had been uniform through the 
four years. This statement is based upon figures from agricultural 
stations showing that : 

"Fifty bushels of wheat in the grain contains twelve pounds of 
phosphorus, valued at $1.44. The straw, 2j% tons, contains four 
pounds of phosphorus, valued at 48 cents. In addition the wheat crop 
contains $14.40 worth of nitrogen and $2.88 worth of potassium, or a 
total of $19.20 worth of fertility taken from the soil. These elements 
are taken in varying quantities. If the grain is fed to animals, one- 
quarter of the phosphorus which it contains is, on the average, sold 
in the animal product. If these products are butter and cream, a 
thousand pounds would contain only about 30 cents worth of nitro- 
gen, potash and phosphoric acid. The skim milk from which this 
butter came would contain about $8 worth of nitrogen, 84 cents worth 
of phosphorus, and 72 cents worth of potash. In the case of wheat, 
practically none of the grain is fed to stock, and under present con- 
ditions the farmer buys back very little of the bran and shorts, which 
contain large quantities of nitrogen and phosphoric acid. 

"It is to the interest of the agriculture of the state as well as to 



132 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

the millers and the railroads that the price of these by-products and 
the transportation rates for them should be so adjusted that they 
will remain in the state. In addition to the sale of shorts, bran and 
other grain by-products, we are shipping to Europe large quantities 
of phosphates from our phosphate mines. Hopkins truly says that 
we are selling for the paltry sum of five million dollars what will be 
worth a billion dollars to the next generation. We cannot empha- 
size too strongly the importance of conserving our phosphate sup- 
plies for our own soils, which are in many cases quite deficient in this 
element. We must soon follow the practice of European farmers 
and add more of this element to our soils than we take out in crops." 
From 8 to 20 bushels per acre of No. 2 wheat is considered an 
average yield now in farming, since more modern methods of crop 
rotation prevail. But the idea of heavy fertilizing on wheat lands is 
still far from a prevalent one. Fifty bushels of No. 1 wheat per acre 
might be raised by 50 loads of well rotted manure to the acre, and 
this would mean smaller farms but more systematic and easier man- 
aged farming. Forty acres sowed to wheat would return more than 
150 acres under the old style, and when the season was over there 
would still be stored up fertility for other crops. Clover the wheat 
then and turn the stock into it — all but dairy cattle — which should 
not feed on new seed clover alone. Save all of the straw from the 
wheat field, and bed the stock plentifully with it. Apply this long 
manure to the clover field — 20 or 25 loads to the acre, plow it under 
and plant corn the next year. The next crop may be wheat again, 
with clover and timothy sowed with it ; or oats and barley may be 
seeded early in the spring with the Mammoth red clover and timothy. 
By this way of farming two crops of the best clover hay may be cut 
in one summer, and a corresponding increase of stock be put upon 
the farm to increase the fertilizing agencies for another season. But 
the wheat farmer of today must also know how to be as scientific 
in breeding his grain as he is in breeding his stock. The improved 
varieties of field crops of today have become improved through two 
very opposite influences ; heredity and variation. The wise farmer 
for the tomorrow of farming in this country is the one who knows 
that he must strike the balance between these two agencies by the 
most careful environment if he wants the scales to tip toward an im- 
proved variation and remain there. By scientific selection and train- 
ing the No. 1 Minnesota has been developed, but if continual inbreed- 
ing, selection and cultivation did not maintain this wheat to its level. 
No. 1 Minnesota would quickly drop to standard. The seed of No. 1 
wheat is by no means all No. 1. 

Rust Resistance. 

However, the northwestern and, in fact, all the wheat growing 
states, have made marked progress in this direction of scientific wheat 
growing in the past six years. In the one feature of rust-resistance 
in wheat much has been accomplished. Less than a decade ago the 
alarm over the prevalence of rust in our grain fields led to rapid and 
close attention in our agricultural colleges to the development of a 



CORNANDSMALLGRAINS 133 

wheat that could turn aside the rust disease. In this they have so far 
been moderately successful, and still better results will follow. In a 
recent address Dean Woods, of the Minnesota State Agricultural Col- 
lege, said : "Ultimately we will have a rust-resistant variety of blue 
stem wheat secured by combining by hybridization the rust-resistant 
quality of the durum wheat with the berry of the blue stem. From 
the work already done, it appears that this may ultimately be accom- 
plished." 

There is no other known cure for rust, except to breed rust resist- 
ing varieties of both wheat and oats. Weather conditions develop 
rust, but the character of the stand of grain makes considerable dif- 
ference in the seriousness with which rust will attack it. It is almost 
certain that the spores of the black rust usually live over winter on 
the straw of the wheat plant. 

Seed Grain, 

The old idea that new seed should be got from some distant place 
for wheat culture each year, because wheat grown on the same farm 
year after year would degenerate, is fast vanishing. Every farmer 
should set aside a separate plot of his most fertile area, and sow it 
each year to wheat, or any other grain desired, with the purpose of 
raising his own seed grain. 

In buying, a new variety of seed from a colder climate or higher 
altitude is desirable. Wheat grown farther south and in a warmer 
climate will usually not mature, but will need a longer season, while 
if the seed comes from farther north it will always come earlier and 
be ready to harvest sooner and will be of better quality. Seed wheat 
growers should use formaldehyde, in any case. A solution of 1 lb. 
of this in 40 gallons of water should be sprinkled on the wheat, in 
quantity sufficient to moisten it. Either shovel over until dry, or 
sow while still wet, opening the seeder to sow several quarts per acre 
more of the swollen seed. These directions are given by the Minne- 
sota Experiment Station, and the process costs a few cents per acre. 

On this seed area, if good wheat is wanted in return for the sea- 
son's labors and expense, well cleaned seed must be sown. Where 
one hundred bushels of seed are needed, take one hundred and seven- 
ty bushels of wheat and clean them again and again until you have 
the one hundred bushels of good plump seed demanded that every 
seed shall mean a vigorous plant. For a less area, take in proportion. 
If the ground is strong and rich in plant food stiff-strawed wheat 
should be sown and generally such a variety needs a little heavier 
or thicker planting, as it will not stool so well. 

Well-matured seed, however, does not, of necessity, mean the 
largest seed, although only well-matured, cleaned and even, sample- 
like seed should be used — free from noxious seeds and, if possible, 
grown expressly for sowing purposes. Any farmer who can establish 
a reputation for growing such seed grain of superior value, especially 
of the new varieties that are above the average in yield or quality, 
can command a high price for such grain, not only among his neigh- 
bors, but in the market. 



134 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

"The total yield of a field of grain depends not only upon the 
quality of each plant, but upon its ability to multiply in a numerical 
ratio," says a trained agriculturist. Try, in any season, good or poor, 
the experiment of sowing the average seed and the best seed, on dif- 
ferent plots of your land ; give these plots exactly the same treatment 
as to tillage, and harvesting, and see if the difference in yield does 
not prove the commercial wisdom of the purchase of the best seed. 
If the season is unfavorable, the plants from good seed have a resist- 
ing power that will count much in the last of the season ; while the 
"average seed" will be grown at a decided loss. If the season is fav- 
orable a difference of several bushels per acre will result. To quote 
from J. J. Hill's address to the graduate students of the Minnesota 
State Agricultural College in 1909: "The yield of wheat in Minne- 
sota in 1908 averaged 12.8 bushels per acre, from soil once as rich as 
any in the world. I will not compare this with the yield of other 
countries, nor with states like Washington and Oregon, where they 
raise an average of 23 or 24 bushels to the acre, though that would 
not be unfair, but with the average of the whole United States, slov- 
enly and wasteful as its agriculture is. The average yield of the 
acreage sown to spring wheat in this country in 1908 was 13.2 bushels 
per acre. With our natural advantages we might easily have doubled 
that. We might certainly have equalled the average of 15.5 obtained 
in Iowa or the 17.5 in Wisconsin. If we had, it would have put many 
millions in our pockets. But if we had raised the average in Minne- 
sota even the little four-tenths of a bushel necessary to lift it to the 
low national level, it would have added over $2,000,000 to the wealth 
of the state. If we had done as well as our neighbor state on the 
east, we should have been gainers by over $20,000,000. 

"The average for oats in Minnesota last year was 22 bushels, and 
in the United States 25 bushels. Wisconsin produced 31.1 bushels, 
more than 40 per cent above us. Again the difference between the 
national average and that of this state represented a cash value of 
nearly three and a half million dollars. In few other states do pota- 
toes grow in such abundance and of so fine quality. The average 
product per acre in the nation, about what other countries would con- 
sider a partial crop failure, was 85.7 bushels last year. Minnesota's 
average was 76 bushels. The difference amounts to more than three- 
quarters of a million dollars. Taking these three crops only, with 
whose care our farmers are well acquainted and which respond read- 
ily to ordinary cultivation, and having as a standard the small average 
of the country as a whole, Minnesota's loss in 1908 was over six and 
a quarter million dollars. If comparison were made with what might 
have been done by the best farm methods, the figures would almost 
pass belief. A dollar lost by neglect is lost just as much as if it were 
taken away by force. Yet were anyone to propose a tax of six or 
seven million dollars annually on the farmers of the state it would 
rightly provoke them to fierce resistance." 

As a last argument let me say that a recent report from the Ne- 
braska Experiment Station says the difference in yield there between 



CORNANDS^IALLGRAINS 135 

heavy seed wheat and the "average seed" was 6.5 bushels per acre. 
Blow away your shriveled seed! Don't sow it again. 

The Soil. 

Wheat needs a fertile soil of well drained clay loam for its best 
returns. But lighter soils, if made fertile and highly tilled, will give 
large yields. The best fertilizer is well rotted stable manure broad- 
casted either before or after plowing. If strawy or coarse manure is 
used, it should be on the crop preceding the wheat. For a commercial 
fertilizer, any good one compounded of nitrogen and phosphoric acid 
will be best, as wheat takes large quantities of both from the soil. 

In cold climates fall plowing is always advised for wheat. The 
soil is frost-bound all winter, and this freezing aids greatly in breaking 
up the hard lumps of earth thrown up by the plow, and thus pulveriz- 
ing the soil for the harrowing to follow. If fall plowing, in some sea- 
sons, seems to make the ground too hard, apply the disking process. 
Whatever the process is, the soil for wheat raising must be in good, 
well fined condition for early sowing in spring with three or four 
inches of pulverized earth on top. On very light soils rolling may be 
done before and after seeding. 

From one to one and a half bushels of seed per acre will be 
needed, according to the soil fertility and the time of sowing. For 
early sowing of winter wheat not quite so much seed will be needed, 
even on rich land, as the plantlets will be stooled before cold weather. 
For late seeding add a couple of pecks more per acre. If the seed 
is broadcasted, however, and not drilled in, two bushels per acre 
may be needed. If any aid to yield is needed in the spring, nitrate 
of soda (200 pounds per acre) can be used. 

Wheat should be cut as soon as the straw has turned yellow. 
Never leave it until it is dead ripe, as such wheat has too much bran. 
For a thin bran harvest, cut early. 

In the rainy seasons that are apt to come in September in some 
parts of the Northwest, it is often wise to cut all the small grains 
a little early. Such grain will cure in the bundle or shock fully as 
well as upon the root. Cutting on the green side of the ripe stage, 
anyway, is always better than on the over-ripe side. Large crops 
per acre can also be harvested with more speed, because the har- 
vester is cutting more bushels which is another argument for enrich- 
ing the soil. Have plenty of binders, and keep them all in good con- 
dition for work, by saving and protecting the older machines. 

Seeding To Winter Grain in the Northwest. 

All this seeding should be done in the first of September, so as to 
give the grain two months of growing weather before hard freezing 
sets in. 

If the seed bed was well prepared the grain will 'make a strong 
growth and make a good, vigorous start in the spring. Also the 
blades will mat down over the roots and furnish a lodging place for 
the snow and prevent it from blowing ofif, thus ensuring a good win- 
ter covering. 

Early sown grain stools or produces a number of branches from 



136 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

one seed that bear heads of grain. Late sown grain, on the other 
hand, never stools very much, and consequently reduces the total crop, 
thus making early sown grain the most profitable. 

The Hessian Fly. 

The Minnesota Experiment Station has issued a bulletin (No. 
84) giving the following directions for fighting the Hessian fly: 

"1. Burn the stubble when, from any reason, shallow plowing 
is unavoidable, or when plowing is to be delayed in the spring until 
after emergence of flies. If the stubble is left long it will burn easier. 
Some farmers are willing to go to the trouble of spreading straw 
from thrashing over the stubble, thus insuring the burning and at 
the same time getting rid of some 'flax seeds' which may have lodged 
on the surface of the straw pile at the time of threshing. It is well, 
however, to remember that repeated burnings, from the standpoint 
of our chemists, are not good for the soil. 

"2. Fall plowing of the stubble in such a way that the straw 
is completely turned under. In this connection we should not over- 
look the fact, made evident from the findings of 1903, that volunteer 
wheat, wherever found in the fall, may contain 'flax seed.' 

"3. All screenings and litter about the threshing machine should 
be cleaned up and either fed immediately or burned, leaving no litter 
from the threshing on the field. There is no absolute need of burn- 
ing the straw pile. The flies emerging from 'flax seeds' in the center 
of the pile will never reach the surface. 

"4. Since the fly lays its eggs as a rule near the locality where 
it emerges from the 'flax seed,' it is best not to plant wheat on the 
same ground two years in succession where rotation is possible. Va- 
rieties of wheat that produce a stout stalk are the least affected by 
this pest, and varieties of wheat should be selected and the soil han- 
dled to that end, remembering that a rank growth does not mean 
strong straw, but the contrary. 

"5. Co-operation is absolutely necessary, for, however careful 
one man may be. if his neighbor is not equally so the latter's fields 
will afiford a supply of this pest for the former. Since this pest issues 
from the 'flax seed' early in May, a stubble field left for corn land 
and not plowed up to the 10th of May or later has probably dis- 
charged its quota of flies, ready for mischief, before plowing." 

Miscellaneous. 

For rotation of crops a farm should be divided into at least four 
fields, and fenced around each field. A few acres of clover enclosed 
with woven wire fence are needed for pigs and sheep, if the farm is 
chiefly a stock farm. By this method of fencing the after-feed can 
be utilized by stock to great profit and economy. A fence made of 
two barb wires, with posts grown on the farmer's own woodlot, set a 
couple of rods apart will cost about twenty cents per rod, or per- 
haps a little more. Ordinary stock will be turned by such a fence. 
A good staple puller for fences that need repair can be made from 
the head of an old monkey wrench, heated at the blacksmith shop and 
forged into a slightly hooked point, making it small enough to enter 
the staple. Strike this with the hammer until the staple starts. 



CORN AND SMALL GRAINS 137 

Quack-Grass. 

The best way to kill out quack grass in large fields is to destroy 
it by the cultivation of some other plant. Corn and potatoes grown 
on quack-grass sod are most effective for this purpose. After harvest- 
ing the season's crops plough up the quack-grass sod in the fall. Be 
sure to turn all the grass under and then drag the same way it was 
ploughed. In the winter put on a heavy coat of barnyard manure. 
Plant this ground to corn or potatoes the following spring, cultivate 
well, plough and drag again in the fall. Repeat this process two 
years at least, three years are better, if you want to get a sure result. 
Frost and sun are sure death to quack-grass roots. 

After raising these three crops of corn or potatoes sow wheat, 
oats or barley — with eight quarts of medium red clover seed to the 
acre. Harvest one crop of grain and then a second crop of clover. 
The next season use for pasture. The next, after more manuring in 
the previous fall, plow for corn or potatoes again. Quack-grass will 
be as scarce as hen's teeth by that time. Never allow quack-grass to 
get ripe. Cut it in full blossom. One acre will seed a large farm. 

At the Minnesota Experiment Station small spots of quack-grass 
are killed out by smothering with tar paper. Mow the quack-grass 
first and then remove it. Cover the spots completely with tar paper, 
lapping this several inches and binding the seams by a few shovels 
of dirt. This method kills the grass in about two months, and the 
paper can then be taken up and used in other places. 

For quack-grass around trees, telephone posts, etc., I have found 
heavy applications of coal ashes good. Scatter these about six inches 
from the base of the tree and circle out about eighteen inches in width. 
Hand digging for small spots is usually effective where crops like 
potatoes or corn are cultivated. 

To destroy foul weeds the best way is to summer fallow and 
plant corn the following year. For wild oats, plow immediately after 
harvest, making shallow furrows. Plow in spring very deep and im- 
mediately sow to barley, which will mature before the oats grow. 
Harvest this shallow plow and sow another crop of barley. Some 
farmers sow to fall rye, following by barley next year, and then corn. 
Hand pulling for what spears of wild oats remain is then practiced. 
Canada thistles are best eradicated by marking off the thistle patch 
to itself, and carefully keeping that spot separate from any seeding 
operations. Then plow, and keep on plowing every time the thistle 
plant appears. Fortunately the thistle has nearly disappeared from 
the country, owing to the more thorough cultivation farm lands have 
been getting of late by rotation of crops. 

For a home-made cart to attach to the farm harrow, buy a second 
hand road cart, or a new one which will not cost more than a dozen 
of dollars, and attach it to the evener. This will bring the wheels up 
pretty close to the harrow where you can ride on a good comfortable 
seat on wheels that are high enough to be easy and thus the horses 
will save the man. The thinking man can introduce a large number 
of these labor saving devices on the fajm, which will help make farm- 
ing a pleasure instead of a burden. 



CHAPTER X 
Small Fruit Raising 

THE writer has had a large practice and training in growing all 
kinds of small fruit, and has found that fruit-raising near large 
bodies of water is likely to be more certain as to results. I 
know this by my own experience in Western New York. 
There is more moisture and less frost in spring and fall ; and near the 
Great Lakes, especially, more rainfall. Most of the fruit of Michigan 
is produced in orchards near Lake Michigan. The grape belt of New 
York lies in the proximity of Lake Erie and Cayuga Lake. The same 
thing is noticed in Minnesota, where the abundance of lakes, large and 
small, furnishes an excellent opportunity for fruit growing. 

For small fruits, as well as for gardens, a soil where a light, 
sandy loam predominates is best. This is especially good at harvest- 
ing time, as after rains it dries ofif quickly. A clay loam, with clay 
subsoil, is good for raspberries. If you can, it is well with sandy soil 
to add some good black dirt to the sand. A covering of from four 
to six inches of this soil with the same proportion of well rotted stable 
manure ploughed in thoroughly before covering, will insure you a 
good garden, whether for fruit or vegetables. 

Raspberries. 

Yet even in alkali soil farmers have made a success of rasp- 
berry raising by freely manuring. I have even seen raspberries raised 
on the open prairie, without any wind break, by well covering with 
old hay and straw. In the spring the hay was tramped into the 
ground and if this was not sufficient, to smother the weeds, the farm- 
er put on straw enough to cover the ground all over. This acted as 
a mulch in dry weather, and in wet weather kept the berries clean. 

Generally speaking, however, the best way to raise raspberries 
for the home or market is to plant in the spring, if possible, six feet 
each way, and cultivate lightly both ways with horses. This does 
away with the backaching hand work. The berries are larger and 
sweeter because they get more sun when grown in hills six feet 
apart. They are also brighter colored and more even in size, bring- 
ing higher prices than those grown in thick rows. No sun can 
shine on these last, and in wet weather they amount to nothing. 
Red raspberries and blackberries may safely be set in the fall if the 
canes are cut to the ground. 

Prepare the ground thoroughly by deep plowing, as it will be 
almost impossible to do anything but surface cultivation after the 
plants are set, on account of the lack of deep roots with bush fruits. 
Harrow well and then go over the ground marking ofif rows six feet 
apart. Short rows are best as they take less time in picking, where 
much labor must be hired. Row north or south, or east and v/est. 



SMALLFRUITRAISING 139 

according to the direction of your strongest winds. If you set six 
feet apart, about 1,200 plants will be needed for an acre. If you 
still stick to hand cultivation, and many raspberry growers adhere 
to the three-foot apart space in the row, twenty-four hundred and 
twenty plants will be needed for an acre. 

Let one person go along the row making the holes for the plants, 
and another follow with a pail of water holding as many plants as 
it will. Never expose the roots to the air. In setting plants, spread 
the fine roots as much as possible, but do not cover the crown deeper 
than from two to three inches or the plant may die. Firm the earth 
well around the roots, and then cultivate at least every ten days, 
once a week is better. From early spring to late August cultiva- 
tion must go on, and an excellent way to insure such cultivation is to 
plant hoed crops between the plants. One woman raspberry grower 
on a large scale, sold enough early peas and turnips the first year 
from her plantation to pay for the berry plants. If, on the other hand, 
the soil is light and needs humus a cover crop can be sown between 
the rows in August. 

But raspberries, especially red raspberries, do not require a very 
rich soil. Tillage, and the annual mulch of well rotted manure, will 
keep the soil in good shape if it is only deep and well drained to 
start with. Blackcap raspberries can stand a richer soil, and more 
frequent fertilizing. Blackcaps have been known, with high culture, 
to yield 10,000 quarts per acre. 

Where blackcap raspberries grow on cultivated ground, the rows 
need to be six feet apart and at least four feet in the row. Mulch 
these every fall also. Protect them on the north. Set out new rows 
and plow up the old ones after five or six years. Cut out all the 
old dead wood in the spring and again after picking in August or by 
September 10, and cut the new canes back about 30 inches. I never 
turn down the canes or cover them, but if one wishes to do this for 
winter covering loosen the dirt around the roots with a fork-spade, 
when the bushes will then bend down without breaking the young 
canes. 

Care the First Summer. 
"The Garden and Farm Almanac" says that "The first season is 
a very critical time in the growth of the small fruit garden. Do 
not neglect it. The most important thing to look after is the till- 
age. Use the cultivator and hoe frequently and thoroughly. Keep 
the entire surface of the garden stirred, not simply to kill the 
weeds, but more particularly to make a mulch of dry soil which 
will keep the soil water from escaping by evaporation. A mulch 
of straw may sometimes be desirable in later years, but the first 
year the mulch should be made of well-tilled soil. Be especially 
careful to stir the soil after a heavy rain when a crust has formed. 
Whenever you find the surface soil crusted, you may know that 
much valuable moisture is escaping; break it up with the cultivator. 
On very small areas a stirring of the surface with an iron rake, every 
three or four days, will keep up the best kind of a mulch and the 



140 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

weeds cannot grow. Be particularly attentive to the strawberry bed. 
Allow no weeds to get a start there the first season ; then it will not 
be difficult to keep down the weeds during subsequent seasons. Til- 
lage should not be kept up much after the middle of August, as it 
will cause the plants to grow late, and so be more liable to winter 
killing. Let the weeds grow in the fall as they will ; they protect the 
soil during- the winter. 

"When the raspberry and blackberry shoots are a foot and a half 
high, pinch off the ends, so as to get branched canes. Look out for 
currant worms. When the first worms appear, others are almost 
sure to follow. Pick them off. Spray the leaves with hellebore — 
one ounce in three gallons of water. Usually it will not be neces- 
sary to stake or trellis the brambles the first season. 

"If you desire to increase your planting of raspberries another 
year 'tip' some of your plants. When the canes bend down, and 
long whitish ends appear, cover these firmly in the ground three or 
four inches deep. In the spring the tips will have rooted and can 
be cut off and transplanted." 

All work of cultivation should be done before blooming. The 
ground must be well covered with a litter of hay or straw before 
that time also. After the fruit is picked, cultivate again and mulch 
heavily with barnyard manure well mixed with straw, both for win- 
ter protection and to enrich the soil for the next year. In very dry 
weather it may be necessary to cultivate deep and in such seasons it 
may be better to cultivate between blooming and ripening, in order 
that the soil may retain its moisture. But hand cultivation will be 
best. Keep the soil between free from weeds and grass. Do not use 
shavings or sawdust for mulching. Remove the winter covering in 
the spring at two different times. If the spring is warm and early 
take off a portion in March, the rest in April. The difficulty of any 
deep cultivation near raspberry roots is caused by the surface growth 
of the roots — for this reason mulching is very beneficial. 

Another Method of Planting and Caring for Black Raspberries and 

Red Raspberries. 
They should be planted seven feet apart and six or seven feet 
in the row. As soon as they are planted in gardens or fields there 
should be a flat trellis built over them. It should be two by two and 
one-half feet high and three feet in width. The posts should be 
driven in the ground eighteen inches deep. The trellises can be 
made of wire or slats two inches in width. They should be four 
inches apart, so as to give the young sprouts or canes plenty of 
room to come through the trellises and bend over. Cut all of the 
old canes as soon as the berries are ripe and gathered, for the canes 
that produced the present season's crop are of no further use after 
the berries have all been gathered, and should be cut out of the 
clumps at the surface of the ground. Cut back the young canes 
about six inches, the middle of August, and leave them on the trel- 
lises to winter. When the weather becomes cold and freezing, 
cover them with straw or coarse horse stable littering, or hay. In 




H 



C ^ 






CO « 



P< 



SMALLFRUITRAISING 141 

the spring this covering should be put around the roots of the rasp- 
berries for mulching. They should be kept heavily mulched the year 
around. In the spring, as the ground will permit, work the soil 
mellow. 

Another and more thorough method for covering raspberries 
with earth is to loosen the soil on one side of each bush with a spad- 
ing fork. Then set the spading fork firmly in the ground on the 
other side of the bush and push over toward the soil with the top of 
the fork. This rolls the roots over and avoids breaking the stalks. 
Then hold the branches down by the fork, pushed into the earth over 
them, and shovel the dirt on. A deep covering of dirt is not neces- 
sary, but enough is needed to provide against the washing of late 
fall rains, as these may remove enough soil to expose some of the 
main stem. 

Heeling In, 

When raspberry plants are two years old, leave on the largest 
and strongest looking sprouts without pruning until quite late in the 
fall. By these I mean those that start between the rows after the 
fruit is gathered. Before frost comes dig these out, select all that 
have a T root and "heel them in." "Heeling in" means digging a deep 
trench between the rows and packing in these plants closely, leaving 
only an inch or two of the cane above ground. This gives you plants 
to replace others or to sell. Prunings of new wood may also be set 
out for cuttings. These should be set immediately after cutting, and 
be about 6 inches long. Set in rows wide enough for cultivating, six 
inches apart. Firm the soil well and cover well with leaves and lit- 
ter before winter sets in. 

Raspberries are a very perishable crop and must be handled rap- 
idly in marketing. If grown in a large way where other fruit crops 
are grown in order to not to put all your profits in one crop — they 
may be a valuable asset in the year's business. Too much rain at 
the last or too much sun at the beginning of the season, are bad for 
raspberry results. So much depends upon the weather with this fruit 
that its growers must not reckon on it too certainly. Raspberries are 
also subject to two or three bad diseases that are difficult to master 
completely. 

Blackberries. 

Blackberries are planted and cultivated the same as raspberries. 
They need a richer soil, and plants should be set 8 feet apart each 
way, requiring 680 plants to the acre. This gives excellent chance for 
the cultivation this bush fruit needs, and makes harvesting the ber- 
ries much easier. They can, however, be planted as hedge rows with 
plants 4 feet apart in 8 foot rows. This method requires 1,361 plants 
to the acre. Some fruit will mature the first year after planting, but a 
full crop does not come until the third season. A well managed black- 
berry plantation will bear well for twenty years, but for the best 
results renew the area about every 8 years. An average yield is about 
3,000 quarts to the acre. Heavy fertilizing and high pressure cultiva- 
tion, however, in favorable years, it is reported, have yielded 8,000 



142 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

quarts on some plantations. Good varieties of blackberries are Aga- 
wam and Snyder. 

Prune the blackberry canes back to fifteen inch stubs where 
the laterals have grown before the berries begin to ripen. About 
five new shoots to the hill are sufficient, cut out the rest, and later 
on, after harvest, remove all the canes that bore. Remember that 
many varieties of blackberries turn black several days before they 
mature fully and in order to get the richest flavor from the fruit it is 
necessary to leave the berries on the bush until they come ofif easily. 
For transportation this may not be always advisable but it certainly is 
in the home garden. 

In South Dakota the dewberry, a species of trailing blackberry, 
is said to produce a fruit that equals the bush blackberry if properly 
cultivated, protected through the winter and trained on trellises. 

Strawberry Culture. 

The difficulties in strawberry growing are not so many as with 
raspberries. The yield is heavier and the cost of growing as compared 
to yield is smaller. Strawberries are more generally in demand for all 
tastes, and they are less likely to be attacked by disease. They are 
what might be called a profitable venture for beginners and furnish 
an occupation in the growing that is likely to be agreeable. Still 
there is a great deal to be learned yet as to strawberry raising, al- 
though it has been said that any one can grow strawberries who can 
grow corn or garden vegetables. 

As to soil, strawberries can be grown in any soil that is not 
naturally heavy and wet. Soil that has a sandy clay loam is preferable 
to all other kinds. One of the most essential things in strawberry cul- 
ture is a deep, rich bed. Select well drained soil and work it very 
finely by spading or plowing at least six or seven inches deep. Then 
work in a large amount of well rotted stable manure. Plow or spade 
this into the soil and work the bed until it is fine and mellow. Air- 
slacked lime is an excellent fertilizer, when spaded into the soil with 
the barn-yard manure. 

From one hundred to one hundred and fifty pounds of lime is 
sufficient for a bed twenty-four (24) feet square if well worked into 
the soil. If the ground is dry and the weather warm, the bed should 
be well watered twenty-four hours before the planting. 

Varieties. 

In selecting varieties care should be taken to get the staminate 
sort with perfect blossoms by which means the imperfect varieties 
are fertilized. Some kinds of strawberries have blossoms which are 
imperfect; other varieties have perfect flowers. These last are called 
staminate, the former pistillate flowered varieties. 

The staminate varieties marked (S), fertilize themselves. The 
pistillate, marked (P), must be planted near perfect flowering kinds, 
in order that the flowers may be fertilized. The pistillate varieties 
are the most prolific bearers. Always get varieties suited to your own 
locality. 



SMALL FRUIT RAISING 143 

One of the strongest growers is the Senator Dunlap (S). It is 
large in size, has a delicious flavor and is one of the finest market ber- 
ries. Crescent (P) is a large, productive, and strong grower, also a 
good shipper. 

The Bubach (P) is a good variety for home use and a near mar- 
ket. Many other varieties might be mentioned such as the Brandy- 
wine, McKinley, and the Marshall and Gladstone. These are all very 
good varieties to raise. Most plants do best by setting every other 
plant in the same row, 1 perfect, 1 pistillate. Not long ago "The 
Farmer's Voice" published the following list of strawberries fur- 
nished to that periodical by J. H. Hale. Being a well specialized yet 
completely arranged list it seems wise to reprint here for the con- 
venience of strawberry raisers. 

Earliest — Climax, Palmer, Excelsior, Fairfield, Parson's Beauty. 

Latest — Midnight, Lester, Lovett, Arnot, Gandy and President. 

Largest — Maximum, Mammoth, Midnight, Bubach, Mead, Auto, 
President, Morgan, Nick Ohmer, Sharpless Improved, Uncle Jim, 
Brandywine, Challenge, Climax, Glen Mary, Lady Garrison. 

Great Yielders — Climax, Glen Mary, Mead, Parson's Beauty, 
Auto, Sample, Splendid, Haverland, Bubach, Dunlap, Excelsior, Ar- 
not, Clyde, Kansas. 

Best Formed Berries — Mead, Climax, Pride of Cumberland, 
Splendid, Warfield, Clyde. 

Highest Flavored — Auto, Mead, Pennell, Palmer, Nick Ohmer, 
Brandywine. 

For Light Sandy Soil — Splendid, Dunlap, Fairfield, Mead, Haver- 
land, Excelsior. 

For Heavy Clay Lands — Arnot, Nick Ohmer, President, Sharp- 
less Improved. 

Deep Red All Through — Challenge, Mammoth, Parson's Beauty, 
Warfield, Nick Ohmer, Glen Mary, Uncle Jim, Brandywine, Kansas, 
Mead, Pride of Cumberland. 

Firm for Long Shipment — Pride of Cumberland, Warfield, Uncle 
Jim, Arnot, Challenge, Dunlap, Gandy, Lester, Lovett. 

The Old Wild Strawberry Flavor — Palmer, Pennell. 

Planting and Culture. 

When selecting the ground for a new strawberry bed, choose a 
plot Vv^here strawberries have not been raised recently. The plants 
for this new bed should not be taken from last year's bed until they 
have started a new growth in the spring, as they are more apt to take 
root quicker and make a much better growth the first season. Al- 
ways set the last year's growth of plants when planting a new bed. 
You can tell the difference between the old plants and the young 
plants by the roots. The roots of the old ones are black in color, 
while those of the young plants from last year's growth are a light 
color, almost white. 

For large fields set the plants in rows three and one-half feet 
apart, and eighteen inches in the row. For garden culture, they can 



144 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

be set eighteen inches in the row, and in rows twenty-four inches 
apart. After planting press the soil down close around the roots. 

If the weather continues warm and dry, give the plants a light 
sprinkling of water for the first two evenings, after that, twice a week 
is sufficient. Then from twelve to sixteen hours after the watering, 
cultivate and keep the ground mellow and loose and free from weeds. 
Cut olT all runners as fast as they grow. 

The blossoms on the first year's planting should be cut oiT as 
soon as they begin to appear. If left to mature, the plant will be in- 
jured, the second year's crop will be short, and the berries also will 
be very much smaller. With proper care a bed may be made to pro- 
duce three crops of line berries. 

In the home garden, irrigation may often be practiced to advan- 
tage. Strawberries, above all other fruits, delight in an abundance 
of water. Good tillage provides water ; but it may sometimes be ex- 
pedient to supplement tillage with irrigation. Surface sprinkling, 
unless prolonged, is usually worse than useless. Let the water soak 
down several feet in one place before directing it to another place. 
Irrigate deeply, or not at all. This applies to the watering of lawns as 
well as to the irrigating of gardens. 

In tilling strawberries, always run the cultivator or rake through 
the same way each time. When a row is matted over two feet wide 
stretch a line and chop ofT and hoe up all the outsiders. Keep the row 
at this width by frequent uprootings ; let all the strength of the soil 
go into the plants which have already set. Keep up tillage in the 
space between the matted rows. If you find an occasional plant which 
looks sickly and shriveled, dig it up and kill the fat, white grub which 
is eating its roots. This is the worm which becomes the June beetle. 

Do not mulch the strawberry bed too early when the frosty nights 
come. Cultivate as long as possible, but when the ground is frozen 
hard, in the late fall, they must be covered with a mulch of straw, 
hay, or any horse barn litter. Do not cover more than an inch or two. 
Forest leaves make an excellent covering with a few light brush placed 
over them to prevent the wind and rains from scattering them abroad. 
That portion of the bed directly around the plants may be mulched 
heavily, but not the crowns of the plants. 

It is a good plan before this last mulching and when the berries 
are all harvested to cut or mow the beds with a grass scythe, having 
the stubble about two inches high. Pull out all grass and weeds, also 
removing all rubbish from the bed and burn. Early in the fall place a 
thick covering of rotted barn yard manure between the rows and 
spade it into the soil putting a very light dressing among the plants. 
This will not only keep the fruit clean, but will prevent the ground 
from drying or baking ; and thus lengthen the fruiting season. This 
should be done every year. 

Old Strawberry Beds. 

Old strawberry beds must not become overrun with weeds in the 
early fall, nor should the runners be allowed to set too closely. Eight 
or nine inches apart in the row, when matted, is a safe distance for 



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SMALLFRUITRAISING 145 

a good crop next season. There is one danger in using straw for 
mulching. This comes from the weed seeds in the grain and when the 
bed is to be a permanent one this is an item to be considered. But 
old straw is the least likely to contain seeds of much vitality. In put- 
ting this on distribute evenly so that the plants will not be smothered. 
If there is frost beneath the mulching there is no danger of this, but 
if snow does not come early, it is necessary to protect so as to avoid 
alternate thawing and freezing. In the spring as soon as warm enough 
but before removing the mulching, go through the rows and raise the 
mulching lightly with a hay fork just enough to give the plants a lit- 
tle air. This will prevent the plants from turning yellow. 

Later in the spring, or as soon as the buds on the trees come out 
and the grass shows, remove one-thtird of the winter mulching from 
all plants that have been covered. If the weather continues warm 
and hard freezing is over with, one week later remove all the win- 
ter covering remaining. On a cloudy day, or in the evening, is the 
best time to do this, but be sure you do not uncover too soon. In case 
of late and untimely frosts, the following directions for protecting 
strawberry plants in small gardens will be of use to the farmer's wife : 
Take strips of cheesecloth about a foot wide and the length of the 
rows ; if the vines spread to a width in the row of more than a foot, 
increase the width of the strips. Hem across the ends, and at each 
corner secure pegs about a foot in length, pointed at one end. On 
evenings when frost seems imminent, cover the rows with these 
stripes ; drive or push the pegs into the ground at the end of the rows, 
until the cheesecloth is about four or five inches above the plants; 
then unroll the strips, stretching them to the opposite ends of the rows 
and fasten them down with the other pegs. In this way the plants are 
sheltered, the covering does not come in contact with them, one does 
not have to bother with newspapers that have to be weighted down 
and the strips are readily rolled up and put out of the way when not 
needed. 

Strawberries the Second Season. 

The best time to plant strawberries in the northwestern states, 
to secure a crop the next season, is the first week in August. To 
prepare the bed for the summer setting of strawberry plants, the 
ground should be heavily top dressed some weeks before using with 
the best of well rotted manure. This fertilizer should be thoroughly 
spaded into the soil, and all chunks of dirt broken up. When the soil 
for the bed is worked fine and mellow turn on the hose and give the 
bed a good soaking. Wait 24 hours for the water to settle into the 
ground. 

If the sun is very hot set the plants in the evening after sun- 
set, pressing the dirt around the roots with the hands. Twenty-four 
hours after planting give the strawberry bed a light sprinkling of 
water all over, but never when the sun is shining. Water this new 
bed every 24 hours for the first week after planting, the second week 
every third evening, and once a week thereafter until plenty of rain 
comes, always after sunset. Be sure to select your plants for this 



146 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

August bed from the first runners that set in summer. If the layers 
are purchased from a near nursery or garden dig at once after a rain, 
and transplant directly to the new ground with a ball of earth about 
the roots. 

Commence to cultivate the plants soon after planting them. 
Keep the soil loose and the bed free from weeds. In winter the bed 
should be covered with leaves, straw, or hay, two or three inches 
deep all over the bed. This should be done when the ground begins 
to freeze in November. No water should be allowed to stand on 
the bed where it will freeze and thaw. This means death to the 
plant. Strawberry plants must not be allowed to bear berries the 
first season. 

Currants and Gooseberries. 

One important point to remember in fruit growing is that fruit 
grown in the sun is worth twice as much as fruit grown in the shade. 
When shade fruit is exposed to the open air it perishes much sooner 
than a fruit that grows and ripens in the sun and it always has a poor, 
flat flavor. This is especially true of gooseberries and currants. Plant 
these in rows eight feet apart, running north and south, so as to let 
in the sun on the fruit. The plants should be six feet in the rows. 
Mulch heavily with horse stable manure, littering, or other coarse lit- 
ter of straw or poor hay. In a hot, dry season this will hold moisture 
and protect the roots greatly. 

Prune every year in the spring before the sap starts — about the 
last of February or the first of March. Leave from three to five 
of the most vigorous and upright shoots, but any old wood that 
shows signs of disease or that persists in sprawling on the ground 
should be cut out. Currants and gooseberries may be made to grow 
in bushes of a single tree-like stem in a warm climate. Weed out 
thoroughly grass and weeds. The lower the bush fruit of these sorts 
is cut down in fall, and the nearer the bushes are to the ground the 
better for them in cold climates and below zero weather, though 
currant and gooseberry bushes are sufficiently hardy to stand during 
the winter without injury. A mulch of barnyard litter about the 
roots will be of value in protecting them from drought and frost. 

Coal ashes are almost worthless as a fertilizer, but they may 
sometimes be used to good advantage as a mulch for currant and 
gooseberry bushes. Wood ashes, however, are an excellent fertilizer 
and should be carefully saved. 

Currants should be pruned so as to leave four to six canes in 
a bush, and all the young new sprouts that have grown from the 
roots should be cut out, about the 15th of June. If this is done the 
currants will be one-third larger and the bushes will grow twice as 
fast. However, if you want young branches to plant, leave some of 
the best young branches on the mother bush and cut them from it in 
the spring. 

Plant them in the garden in rows about four feet apart, and 
about one foot apart in the row. Plant from four to five inches in 
the ground, leaving two or three buds above ground. Cultivate well 



SMALLFRUITRAISING 147 

the first season, and the next season transplant to rows eight feet 
apart, running north and south, and seven feet apart in the row. 
Gooseberries should be planted and treated the same as currants. 

Gooseberry bushes that are crowding each other may be trans- 
planted early in the fall season better than in the spring. Soak the 
soil well about the plants that are to be removed before shifting 
them and keep as much soil around the roots as possible. After the 
plants are set, firm the soil well around the roots, and cut away old 
wood and any new branches that do not look vigorous. Mulch 
heavily, and if the soil is rich, while you will not have fruit the next 
season, you will have thrifty instead of weak looking bushes. 

You can also bank the gooseberry bushes with earth, leaving the 
terminal branches to show through the banking. These will make 
roots during the summer. Divide them in the spring and plant in 
in three or four ye^rs, and produce a crop of late fruit of unusual 
size and good quantity and quality. 

A novelty in the line of currants is called the Chautauqua Climb- 
ing Currant, and is said to grow to the height of some twelve feet 
rows where cultivation is possible. 

Protect from Worms. 

Spray the currants and gooseberries just as soon as the blos- 
soms disappear, and thus destroy the first crop of worms which are 
quite sure to be followed by a destructive second crop a little later 
in the season. 

The currant worm usually begins the season's work on the 
gooseberry bushes which come into leaf very early in the spring. 
Spray them soon and often for this green worm is the greatest enemy 
of the currant and gooseberry, and will soon strip them of their leaves. 
A mild poison, applied when it cannot harm the fruit, will destroy 
them. The worms hatch early and are so small at first that great 
injury may be done before the enemy is noticed. It is well to spray 
the bushes before you notice the worms, as the proverbial ounce of 
prevention is worth a great deal in this case. 

Paris green or white powdered hellebore are both effective. 
If you have 100 bushes to dust, get 15 cents worth of hellebore and 
mix it with double its bulk of white flour. Put it into a cheescloth 
sack and dust the bushes by shaking it over them after sundown 
or very early in the morning, while the dew is on. Be sure to treat 
all parts of the bush alike. If there is no rain for a day or two, one 
good application will destroy all the worms. But if a shower hap- 
pens to wash off the poison before the worms have had time to eat 
it, it must be applied again. 

Paris green is used the same way, except that it is a stronger poi- 
son and must be diluted. One tablespoon of poison to. a quart of 
flour is strong enough. Many prefer to use the poison with water 
and apply it with a sprinkler. If used with water, allow two table- 
spoons of the hellebore and one of Paris green to a pail of water. 
Of course, in this form the poison may be applied at any time of 
day. Watch the bushes carefully and if another hatch of worms ap- 



148 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

pears later, use the hellebore, for it is dangerous to use Paris green 
when the fruit is so nearly ripe. 

After the currants are all picked don't stop using the Paris green 
solution for the rest of the season. The currant worm has several 
broods a year, and they keep on working at the foliage until late in 
the year. Unless you try the ounce of prevention now you are likely 
to have no crop worth mentioning another season. 

Grapes. 

There is an increasing demand for home-grown grapes, and if a 
vineyard of an acre or two could be planted and tilled on every farm 
it would be a paying occupation. Grape vines are best planted in the 
spring, but they can be successfully started in the fall if the planting 
is done early and the vines carefully protected during their first win- 
ter. 

Grapes need a rich, strong soil and an abundance of moisture. 
Select a spot that has good surface drainage with a southern ex- 
posure. The ground should be thoroughly spaded up and prepared 
before planting, and cultivated and mulched often to keep the soil 
loose and mellow. Plant in rows 12 feet apart and 8 feet in the row, 
running north and south. This width allows of horse cultivation. 
Good varieties to plant are Campbell's Early Concord, Moore's Early, 
Worden, Janesville, Delaware, Agawam and Pocklington. 

Grape vines should be trained, if possible, on trellises. These 
trellises are best when made of coarse galvanized iron fence wire. 
Set the posts, which should be seven feet long, three feet in the 
ground, leaving four feet above. Set them four feet apart and screw 
small hooks into the posts. Straight wire, looped at both ends is 
fastened oyer the hooks and stretched from post to post. By this 
method the trellis of wire can be separated from the standards and 
laid down with the grape vine undisturbed. 

Cut back in the fall to two or three buds and cover up with 
leaves, hay or straw, six or eight inches deep. When the ground 
commences to freeze for winter, place brush or sticks on the covering 
to keep the wind from blowing it away. Dirt can be used where there 
is neither hay, leaves or straw. Uncover in the spring as soon as the 
frost is out of the ground. 

Three canes to one root are sufficient to insure fine grapes. New 
canes need attention right through the spring in order to keep them 
from becoming too tangled. Remove shoots that interfere with 
training, and if there are canes that have no fruit on them, or but a 
poor promise of fruit, remove these, unless you need them for next 
season's wood. Two clusters near the base of the cane are enough 
to save. Pinch ofif the tips of the canes beyond these, after they have 
reached two or three buds of growth ; except, as before, if you wish 
to keep for next season. 

When the present season's growth becomes firm layers can be 
made by bending down one or two of the lower shoots on each vine 
to a shallow trench made in the soil and placing a shovelful of earth 
over the cane where it comes in contact with the soil. The end of 



SMALLFRUITRAISING 149 

the layered cane should be supported by a stake. A few incisions 
should be made in the cane where it touches the earth. 

Pruning Grapes. 

December is the best time to prune grape vines in a mild cli- 
mate. In almost any climate, in fact, the weather is colder in Febru- 
ary than in December. In March it is also apt to be severe occasion- 
ally, and later than that, the vines are likely to "bleed," if cut back 
as much as they ought to be. Grape vines ought to be cut back 
enough so that only a few eyes remain on a part of the new growth. 
If too much new growth is left on, some of the fruiting growth of 
the next year will be inferior and small. If the canes remaining are 
thriilty, the very few buds left will be ample for a good season fol- 
lowing the December cutting. 

It is also much easier to mulch largely after all the unnecessary 
growth is cut away. You are also saved a good deal of superfluous 
work if spraying is needed in early spring, or lye washing. Plow 
between the rows first, running the furrow as close to the vines as 
possible. Then prune, burn the refuse, and mulch with barnyard ma- 
nure. 

Use wood and coal ashes if you must, together, to kill out the 
grass. But if you can get your ashes separated use coal ashes alone. 
As to special varieties, your locality must determine, for you cannot 
raise California grapes in Minnesota. In our climate cover the vines 
with earth after the cutting and mulching, and then mulch with ma- 
nure or straw again if the vines are very exposed. In general it is 
safe to follow the rule for pruning that enough old wood must be 
left upon the plants to support the wood to be retained of the past 
season's development. The canes which will produce the grape crop 
next fall are those which develop from the dormant buds on this 
season's wood and from 25 to 40 are enough of these buds to retain. 

Remember, in pruning, that wood which has borne fruit once 
never bears again. The large canes are the same as the body to 
a fruit tree. It is the young wood that bears fruit. 

Bagging Grapes. 

When the grape berries are about as big as small peas they can 
be bagged. This process of inclosing the clusters in manila paper 
bags is not only a great preventive against insects and birds, but 
it keeps the fruit at a uniform temperature, so that it ripens earlier. 
Slit the bags in the center to about two inches and down the sides. 
These flaps are lapped over the cane above the cluster, with the 
leaf opposite the cluster protruding through the central slit. When 
arranged it is kept in place by pinning the flaps together. 

Grapes need abundant moisture at the roots. All farm stock 
lost by sickness or accidents should be buried near the grape vine 
trellises. 

Cutting and Layering. 

Grape cuttings are generally made in the autumn. They should 
consist of the firm, well ripe, new wood and be from 10 to 12 inches 



150 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

long. Tie in small bundles. These bundles should be set in the 
ground or packed in boxes of sand in a cellar where a temperature 
of about 45 or 50 can be had ; set with the top end up and let them 
remain until spring. If wintered out in the ground they must be 
heavily mulched. In the spring the bundles should be placed in the 
greenhouse or hotbed for a few days, turned bottom up with three 
to five inches of soil over the butt end. The soil should be kept moist 
around them. They should remain in this position until they begin 
to show signs of growth. This will appear first at the butt end in 
the shape of a little ridge known as the callous, and it is from this 
ridge that the roots mostly develop. As soon as the little callous is 
well formed the cuttings should be planted, with all but the one 
upper bud under the surface of the soil, and thoroughly cultivated 
through the summer. 

Growing grapes from layers should be done early in the spring, 
using the new growth of the preceding year for this purpose. For 
laying down the original canes, dig a trench four inches deep, place 
the cane in the trench and cover it. Pack the soil very firm over the 
same. If thoroughly cultivated throughout the summer, it will be 
well rooted by autumn, and can be cut off from the parent vine and 
set out as a new plant. 

For mild climates cuttings of grapes may be made of the ripened 
wood in the late summer and planted directly in the ground. Cut 
first above a bud and have the cuttings of about three joints. Select 
a well drained and sheltered spot and plant the cuttings in rows 
three feet apart and six inches apart in the row. Plant so that the 
upper bud is just even with the soil surface and press the soil down 
firmly with the feet. As cold weather comes on cover these with 
at least six inches of leaves or straw. This must be taken oflf early 
in the spring and the bed cultivated through the summer. In the 
next fall the plants can be removed to their permanent places. 
Currants and gooseberries can be treated similarly. 

Insecticides. 

Conkey's Fly Knocker: An instant relief from the attacks of 
flies and other troublesome insects on horses and cattle. Flies not 
only carry disease germs from one animal to others, but sometimes 
drive cows and horses into a frenzy by their incessant attacks. Fly 
Knocker will drive pests away from the barn or other places where it 
is used. It may be applied very easily and at small expense by using 
the Excelsior Single Tube Sprayer. 

Fir Tree Oil Soap: A popular insecticide for use on trees and 
plants, both in the house and garden. Properly applied it is sure 
death to mealy bug, red spider, black and green aphis, caterpillar, 
worms, scale, thrip, blight and slugs. It is also valuable as a remedy 
for skin disease on animals and for destroying fleas and other insects. 
This soap is a saponification of Fir Tree Oil with other ingredients 
prepared in a special way, which produces a more effective and much 
cheaper article than the simple oil. One ounce makes one gallon of 
liquid. 



SMALL FRUIT RAISING 151 

Formaldehyde: The loss to the farmers of the United States 
from Smut and other fungous diseases of wheat, barley, oats and other 
grains amounts to millions of dollars every year. The spores or seed 
of the fungus are on the seed grain which you plant ; when the grain 
sprouts and grows the fungus grows, too ; it follows up through the 
stalk into the blade and into the ear, and the result is blighted plant, 
smut grains and a diseased yield of inferior quality. The same holds 
true of Scab which has proved such a blight to the Irish potato crop. 

Can you afiford to use it? The price of a bushel of wheat ex- 
pended for Formaldehyde will add several bushels to the next harvest. 
It takes as much land and labor to raise a light crop as a heavy one. 

Tobacco Dust: For green and black aphis, fleas, beetles, etc. 
Splendid fertilizer and preventive for insects in the ground and around 
roots. 

Sulpho-Tobacco, Plant and Animal Soap. 

A sure, immediate and convenient exterminator of all insect life 
and vermin on plants, shrubbery, vines, small fruits and trees. 

Non-poisonous and absolutely safe to handle. It will not injure 
the tenderest growth. A powerful fertilizer, reviving plants wilted 
from the ravages of insects. 

For domestic purposes, it is valuable as an exterminator of moths, 
cockroaches, carpet bugs, etc. 

Dissolve about two ounces of soap to a gallon of warm or cold 
water. Apply liquid, when cold, with atomizer or common sprinkler. 
The most famous florists and growers constantly and extensively use 
Sulpho-Tobacco Plant and Animal Soap, with gratifying results. 

Stomach Poisons — For Chewing Insects. 

Paris Green. — Use 5 ounces to 50 gallons of water. Always add 
1 pound of fresh burned lime. In small quantities use 1 heaping tea- 
spoonful to 3 gallons of water. 

Lead Arsenate. — Use 3 pounds to 50 gallons of water. In small 
quantities use 1 tablespoonful to 1 gallon of water. Lead arsenate 
sticks better than paris green and is more effective. 

Poisoned Bait. — Mix dry 1 peck of bran and 3 tablespoonfuls of 
paris green. Moisten the bran with sweetened water. Don't get it 
too wet. Distribute this in small amounts through your garden for 
cut-worms. 

Hellebore. — Mix 1 part hellebore with 3 parts flour, and keep in 
closed vessel over night. This may be used on vegetables or fruits 
that are about ready for the table. Hellebore may be steeped in 
water, 1 ounce to 1 quart of water, and sprayed on. 

Contact Poisons — For Sucking Insects. 

Lime Sulphur. — Slake 20 pounds of fresh burned lime. Add 15 
pounds of sulphur. Boil in 25 gallons of water for one hour. Dilute 
to make 50 gallons. This is a winter spray only. 

Kerosene Emulsion. — Dissolve 1 pound of hard soap in 2 gallons 
of hot water. Remove from fire and add 4 gallons of kerosene. At 



152 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

once churn violently, until a creamy emulsion is formed. Dilute this 
with water so as to have 10 per cent, of kerosene oil in your spray for 
summer use, or 15 per cent, for winter use. 

Tobacco Water. — Cover tobacco stems with hot water. Allow to 
stand over night. Dilute the resulting liquor with 3 parts of water. 

Pyrethrum. — Mix with 3 parts of flour and keep in closed vessel 
for several hours. 

Soap Solution. — Use 1 pound of soap to 8 gallons of water. This 
will be found excellent for plant lice, scale on house plants, or for any 
of the soft-bodied insects. 

Whale Oil Soap. — For winter use dissolve 2 pounds in 1 gallon 
of water. For summer use dissolve 1 pound in 4 gallons of water. 

Bordeaux Mixture For Garden Plants. 

The copper sulphate of bordeaux mixture is dissolved by crush- 
ing it in a burlap bag and then hanging the bag and its contents in 
about three gallons of water several hours before the mixture is made. 
Of course this mixture is not to be advised for ornamental leaved 
plants, as spots follow for several weeks after use. Pick off from 
such all spotted and scarred leaves and burn them when blight and 
rust appear. This helps to keep down the spread of the disease. Often, 
by keeping the soil well cultivated and the plants very dry except for 
cultivation, you can cure the trouble without the mixture, especially 
if dry sulphur is sprinkled or blown on the leaves. 

Tobacco Thrip. — Experiments show that the common rose leaf 
insecticide, which is made of tobacco, will not destroy insects on the 
tobacco plant. These insects are accustomed to partaking of the 
plant, and no decoction made from it will have any material effect on 
them. It used to be thought that the insecticide was an effective 
remedy, especially for thrips. But several simple methods of over- 
coming the bothersome thrip may be followed with excellent success. 
One is to keep the ground perfectly clear of all catch crops between 
crops of tobacco. It has been found that the thrip will pass this 
period successfully on any of the common small grains and on many 
of the weeds. By keeping the field free from all of these its increase 
can be prevented. Another simple method is to keep a border of ten 
or fifteen feet on all sides of the field free from vegetation. This bor- 
der, however, may be planted to corn with nearly as satisfactory 
results. 



CHAPTER XI 

Xne Orchara 

THE writer has had a large experience and has come into con- 
tact with hundreds of people who have consulted him and 
asked for advice in regard to farming and fruit-raising. He 
finds about one in every hundred who thoroughly understands 
these two very important branches of industry. This is especially true 
of fruit-growing, for many intending or actual fruit growers seem to 
think that orchards will be a commercial success without any care 
save Nature's bounty. 

The future of fruit culture it is difficult to estimate just now, as 
so much depends upon how successfully the cold storage business 
is to be controlled. The danger from over-production of apple rais- 
ing, which is such a bugbear to so many people, need not deter any 
man from going into the business of apple culture. Fruit raising of 
all sorts is a money-getting occupation, if the fruit raiser can keep 
out of the hands of the speculators and so manage his crop that he 
sells on an advancing market. 

Small fruits must be sold at once, but the apple yield, of some 
sorts, is a product which can often be held back until late midwinter 
at a decided gain to the apple farmer. The demand for fruit in- 
creases every year, with a supply far behind it. There is hardly a 
farm in this country where fruit of some sort cannot be grown by 
an intelligent and industrious worker. Find out what sort of fruit 
is suited to your locality, or your own soil and then begin by trying 
its culture on some plot of your ground. By this method of going 
slowly at first you can give your fruit plot a fair chance without 
that anxiety that comes from putting all your eggs in one basket. 

Prof. H. J. Eustace gives some interesting figures on the mature 
orchards of western New York. One orchard of 11 acres, near Roch- 
ester, produced fruit in 1902 that sold for $3,588; in 1903, $4,400; 
in 1904, $1,944; in 1905, $3,681; in 1906, $2,627; and 1907, $4,200. 
A neighbor's orchard of mature trees brought in 1905, $4,278; in 1906, 
$4,464, and in 1907, $7,892. Another of 25 acres brought in 1905, 
$9,582; in 1906, $4,733, and in 1907, $11,080. 

The testimony of another eastern farmer is that "if every dis- 
couraged farmer of the present day who is in the temperate grain 
belt, would try planting ten acres of his best land to an apple orchard, 
in ten years he would be making daily trips to the ban-k to deposit 
dollars, instead of trying to borrow them. Each year's growth of the 
trees will also be adding hundreds of dollars to the value of the 
farm. The cost of the investment is small, and hardly any man is 
too old to try the constant, but not severe, labor of fruit raising." 
These are optimistic, but very probable views. 



154 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Sites and Soils. 

Wherever practical, anticipate your planting of an orchard, of 
any sort, by two or three years, practicing a rotation of crops. Deep 
plowing cannot be done in bearing orchards, and the soil must be 
thoroughly prepared before you put in the spade to set your trees. 
Lime soils are a great help in fruit raising. In general a porous 
clay loam, tending toward sand, is the best, such a soil as maples, 
elms and lindens do well on. As to location, a hillside is a capital 
place, though plenty of good orchards on level land are found all over 
the States. Plants liable to be injured by sudden climatic changes 
ought never to be planted on a south or west slope, as the chances 
of frost upon a too early blooming must not be risked. This is very 
true of peaches and strawberries, which are early bloomers. On the 
other hand, high colored fruits ought not to have a northern or 
eastern slope. Steep hillsides are hard to cultivate ; therefore I rec- 
ommend a slight slope with a dififerent exposure for different varieties 
of fruit. 

For a stiff, heavy clay, green manure well spaded in will do a 
great deal to lighten the soil. You cannot work in the mulch too 
thoroughly and the rough ground should be cultivated again and 
again, until the soil is thoroughly pulverized. Don't work on such 
a soil when it is wet, and, if possible, let the broken ground go in 
the rough through the winter. Frost will powder it up better than 
hand cultivation often. 

For a sandy soil and small orchard, get a few loads of good 
soil to mix in with the sand ; thus treated a light sandy loam makes 
a good orchard soil. Four to six inches of good soil mixed with 
the same proportion of stable manure and thoroughly and deeply 
plowed in will insure a fine orchard. 

Corn is a good crop to plant when preparing orchard land. Deep 
plowing, turning under green manures, and the growing of such a 
crop insures the thorough preparation and after tillage which must 
be done in order to make your orchard a profitably bearing one. 

Methods of Planting. 

Apple orchards begin to bear in from three to seven years of 
the time of setting out. Apples and pears can both be planted in 
the fall. Get strong two-year-old trees for fall planting, however. 
Peaches and almost all stone fruits should be planted in the spring, 
as it is quite certain that a cold winter will kill most fall set stone 
fruit. But hardy fruits should be planted in the fall, and among 
these the cherry should be listed, as for some reason, spring plant- 
ing fails with this fruit. Get strong two-year-old stock of cherry 
trees and set in the fall as soon as the trees have dropped foliage. 
Sweet cherries need a great deal of room and must be planted twenty- 
five to thirty feet apart. These do not need so rich a soil as the sour 
cherry, which needs a heavy loam. Sour cherries can be set from 
sixteen to eighteen feet apart. 

In setting out apple and other fruit trees, dig holes three feet 
deep and three feet across. Fill in the bottom with fourteen inches 



THEORCHARD 155 

of well rotted manure with two quarts of salt mixed through it. 
This helps to hold moisture. Tread down hard and firm and add six 
inches of good black soil. Set the tree on this. Fill in around the 
roots well with mellow, rich earth and to the top of the pit. Mulch 
above with coarse stable littering or straw — anything that the wind 
cannot blow away. Lime is a good fertilizer mixed with manure and 
well spaded in, as has been said previously. 

Directly after planting apply a thick mulching of well-rotted ma- 
nure. Small trees need this four feet in diameter. Four to ten inch 
trees need six to eight feet in diameter. One load of this dressing will 
be needed for a tree eight to ten inches in diameter or for four three- 
inch trees. It should be applied from six to eight inches in depth. 
Spade this mulching well into the ground the second day after plant- 
ing. Cultivate with a fork spade every ten days thereafter, but use 
great care not to disturb the roots of such newly set stock. Continue 
this through the fall as long as the ground can be turned, and begin 
again early in the spring, when the soil is full of moisture. This con- 
serves the water in the soil and prevents later dryness. When the 
first dressing has been well spaded in a second one should be given 
to retain moisture during the summer. Through any season of 
mulching, it must be well worked into the soil. In mulching see 
that the dressing circles out as far as the outside branches extend. 
Hoed crops in an old orchard do no harm, if well cultivated. In fact, 
some orchardists plant squashes and cultivate with two horses where 
the orchard is a large one. 

Dynamite In Orchard Planting. 

One of the most modern methods of orchard cultivation is that 
of the use of dynamite. In a recent issue of an eastern paper was an 
article showing the good results from planting trees with dynamite 
in an 800-acre orchard owned by the Missouri Valley Orchard Com- 
pany, near Neely, Kan. The methods w^ere practical and not danger- 
ous. With a two-inch auger a hole thirty inches deep is bored in the 
spot where a tree is to be planted. The depth of the hole depends 
largely upon the nature of the soil. The object is to penetrate into 
the "hardpan," a clay-like substance impervious to water and impene- 
trable to tree roots. Half a stick of especially adapted dynamite of 
comparatively low strength then is tamped into the hole and shot. 

The low power dynamite not only is less dangerous to handle, 
but instead of tearing a large "pocket" in the ground, as the higher 
power kind does, it merely loosens the ground downward through 
the "hardpan" and around it for a radius of eight or ten feet. 

The soil is barely lifted by the explosion. The ground now is 
ready for planting the tree. The "hardpan" has been broken so the 
moisture from below can nourish the roots of the young tfee — a great 
advantage in dry weather — and the soil above the "hardpan" has been 
loosened more thoroughly than would have been possible with any 
amount of plowing or digging. 

The cost for each tree planted in this manner averages about 
three cents. Tests, it is said, show that trees planted with dynamite 



156 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

make an advancement of about two years in growth and fruiting over 
those planted by the old method. 

Varieties. 

Plant trees adapted to your own locality, eastern grown for the 
East and western jfor the West. Occasionally try a new variety ; 
but a variety not adapted to the climate in which it is to grow is 
likely to be short lived with small yields, and difficult to grow at the 
best. An eastern apple grower has given me the following list as 
likely to secure the best results for eastern sections : 

Summer varieties, Oldenburg, Gravenstein and Red Astrachan ; 
fall varieties, Maiden Blush, Fall Pippin, Wealthy and Northern 
Spy ; winter varieties, Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening, York Im- 
perial, Grimes Golden, Jonathan, Tompkins King, Stark and Ben 
Davis. 

Of these he recommends the Baldwin and the Rhode Island 
Greening as the best. 

In the Northwest, however, for a commercial orchard, a practical 
fruit grower gives this plan, which I copy verbatim, for setting out 
an acre of trees : 

In the spring run 6 rows parallel with the front of the orchard, 
15 feet apart, then 6 more rows, 20 feet apart, and 10 transverse 
rows, 20 feet apart. On one side take 6 rows for plums, on the 
other, 6 rows for crabs ; the 6 rows in the rear being for standard 
apples. Of plums plant DeSota, 4; Weaver, 2; Rollingstone, 3; 
Cheney, 3; Aitkin, 3; Wolf, 3; Wyant, 4; Forest Garden, 2; Surprise, 
6; making 5 rows in front, with 6 in each row. Of crabs, plant 
Martha, 4; Minnesota, 2; Whitney, 4; Gideon's No. 5, 2; Virginia, 3; 
Lyman's Prolific, 3; Early Strawberry, 2; Florence, 4; Darit, 2, and 
Compass cherry, 4; making 5 more rows of 6 each. That will leave 
six rows across the rear of the orchard for apples. In these plant 
Longfield, 3; Malinda, 3; in first row; Northwestern Greening, 6; 
Duchess of Borovinka, 6; Wealthy, 12; Okabena, 6; Patten's Green- 
ing, 3; Peerless, 3; McMahon, 2; Wolf River, 2; Blushed Calville, 
2 ; Hibernal, 3 ; Charlamoff, 3 ; Yellow Transparent, 2 ; Repka Ma- 
lenka, 2 ; Anisim, 2. 

Distance Apart. 

As regard the distance apart of these trees, I think, from my own 
experience, that different fruit trees require diflferent distances ; and 
I incline to the latest method of thirty to forty feet apart, for apples 
each way according to variety ; dwarf apples, ten to fourteen feet ; 
pears, twenty to twenty-eight feet ; dwarf pears, ten to fourteen feet ; 
sweet cherries, twenty-five to thirty feet ; sour cherries, eighteen to 
twenty feet ; quinces, ten to fourteen feet. 

In a small home garden the minimum distance may be used. For 
this purpose the varieties of dwarf trees are best. If set in the fall 
ten feet apart, or in any of the unoccupied places about the grounds 
and outbuildings, the amateur fruit grower can get a liberal training 
in fruit raising of the hardier sorts, and at the same time beautify his 



THEORCHARD 157 

homestead. If such trees are set in a favorable location, with rich 
soil, and well watered and cultivated, they will grow four times as 
fast as in an orchard, and in the satisfaction of learning how to make 
fruit raising pay they will prove invaluable to the doubting Thomases 
of this business. But they must be treated right and never neglected, 
in order to give a fair trial. 

Transplanting. 
Rainy days are the best for transplanting trees and vines. But 
I have transplanted in June and July in exposed places with good 
results, by mulching heavily with straw or hay from five to six 
inches deep and about four feet in diameter around vines and shrub- 
bery, and watering every eighth evening. I have transplanted three 
year old grape vines, canes nine to twelve feet long and in full leaf in 
the middle of July, when no trimming or cane cutting could be done. 
Two-inch elm and linden trees in full leaf were also transplanted the 
eighth of June. These all lived and made good growth. Great care 
must be taken to shade shrubbery and vines through the day, how- 
ever, for from two to three weeks after late transplanting. This sun- 
shade must not lie on the plants, but be lifted to leave an air space 
of from two to four feet. The same method of protection by a cov- 
ering which leaves an ample air chamber will often preserve flower 
beds and shrubs in bloom after frosts until late in the fall. 

Propagation. 

As a general rule, the seeds of fruit are of little or no value in 
the production of new plants, unless the seedling trees are budded 
or grafted. This is especially true of seedlings from peach tree pits. 
Cions for grafting are best cut in October or November, according 
to the locality. Cut them to three or four bud lengths, tie the varie- 
ties in bundles, label, and bury in boxes of sand until time for spring 
use. If one wishes to get nursery plants, a few dollars will get 
enough apple trees to plant an acre. If these are set out with the 
care directed here, and all the hardy ones planted in the fall when 
farmers have the most time for this detail work, they will, in a few 
years, get ten times as much profit from one acre as they could 
from corn or potatoes. 

But if any one insists upon experimenting with seeds, plant apple 
seeds in sandy soil, in the fall, in a well drained plot, where ice will 
not form. Mulch with leaves heavily, putting fence brush above. 
Remove the brush in the spring. The seedling usually needs no 
protection. 

If, as a further experiment, you wish to plant the peach pits, 
dig up the soil deeply in a fertile portion of the grounds and plant 
the pits singly three inches deep in the fall. Next spring the seedlings 
will appear and if the trees stand far enough apart they can grow 
unmolested until bearing begins, requiring only to be pruned, cul- 
tivated and fertilized annually. If it is not convenient to plant the 
pits in the fall they may be held over until next spring in a box 
of damp earth. 



158 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

As a rule, Winesaps, Spitzenbergs, and Bellflowers are sterile 
when planted alone; likewise Susquehanna peaches and Kiefer, Bart- 
lett and Angouleme pears. But Baldwins, Rhode Island Greenings, 
Ben Davis and Fallwater apples, Lawrence and Seckel pears and 
green gage plums do not need fertilizing. Certain fruit trees are 
sterile when isolated. For this reason bee-keeping is a valuable 
factor in fruit raising, as the bee distributes the pollen of the blos- 
som. It must be remembered, however, that scarcely one fruit blos- 
som in ten sets fruit, even in the most favorable conditions, and 
where the trees are of the most productive varieties. 

Cultivation. 

Cultivating and fertilizing next become the two most necessary- 
labors. Haul on the orchard land from fifteen to twenty-five loads 
of barnyard manure, spread it all over the ground, and plow it into 
the soil late in the fall or very early in the spring. Cultivate once 
a week until the fruit is harvested. 

The writer tried this in the summer of 1910, when there was 
scarcely any rain. He found that there was plenty of moisture, even 
more at the end of the three months than when he began mulching. 

For any one to become a scientific fruit grower, he must under- 
stand this fact of conservation of moisture. In caring for our or- 
chards in the past, we have put ofif too long the cultivation of them 
after heavy or excessive rains. The best horticulturists now agree 
that cultivation of the orchard should be begun, in all kinds of fruit 
orchards, from 12 to 24 hours after a heavy rainfall, or as soon as 
the water has settled into the ground. Deep cultivation, from 4 to 6 
inches in depth, will conserve the greatest amount of moisture. Dur- 
ing the rainy season the ground must be cultivated in order to make 
ample reservoirs to hold the water during the dry part of the season. 

For ten days during the entire season, in long bearing orchards, 
where the limbs of the tree are too near the ground to be cultivated 
with horses, the ground should be well spaded with a forked spade, 
and should be heavily mulched. If you wish to get the largest re- 
turns from your fruit orchard cultivate and spray thoroughly through- 
out the entire season. 

Mulching Early a Protection From Too Early Blooms. 
Early mulching is a sure preventive of the too early blos- 
soming of fruit trees. In the Northwest the best time to mulch 
fruit trees is about the first of January. Straw, horse stable litter, 
and wild grass hay all make very good mulching for fruit trees. The 
object is to keep the frost in the ground and among the roots of the 
fruit trees and thereby keep the tree from budding too early. If 
the mulching to be used is dry, light stuff, cover the ground around 
the fruit tree from 12 to 16 inches deep. If, on the other hand, the 
mulching to be used is wet or partly rotted, cover the ground around 
the fruit tree only from 8 to 12 inches. Cover all the ground to the 
same depth under the head of the tree, varying according to the 
size of the tree's head, probably from 12 to 20 feet in circumference. 



THEORCHARD 159 

This mulching will keep the frost in the ground around the fruit 
tree from two to three weeks later in the spring. We find often in 
the valleys that the fruit crop is lost from the late spring frosts. 
By mulching heavily we keep the fruit buds back until the late cold 
rains and frosty nights have passed over. A long, cold, rainy time 
with an east wind, when the fruit trees are in bloom, is ruinous to 
the fruit crop. No mulching should be removed from the fruit 
orchard in the spring, but should be left to rot and retain the mois- 
ture in time of drought. 

Cover Crops. 

Cropping a fruit orchard in some localities, often results in more 
and better fruit, while the labor is greatly lessened. For an orchard 
which has been in bearing many years, this is specially true. 

Seeded down to clover the sod mulching conserves moisture and 
enriches the soil. By the middle or last of July in average climates, 
any cultivation should end. Cultivate often during the last weeks 
of this period, getting at least five or six workings in the last three. 
Then put on a cover crop of the crimson clover, to be sown not 
later than the middle of August. If there are any hollow places near 
the fruit trees, either fill up or arrange a ditch to drain off surplus 
water. Anything of this nature must be kept away from fruit trees in 
the winter. In the spring plow up the cover crop. If it can be en- 
riched by stable manure late in the fall, so much the better for the 
trees. Follow the plowing by harrowing, and keep this up by the 
spike-toothed harrows after rains and at least every ten days between 
rains. 

If an orchard is to be pastured for pigs, calves or sheep the trees 
must be enclosed. Set four short posts around each tree. Upon 
these, boards can be nailed, or barb wire wound on the outside. Set 
the posts about four feet from the body of the tree and about three 
feet above ground. Only bearing orchards should be sown to a cover 
crop, and clover is the best for this purpose. Pigs pastured in this 
way will eat up the windfalls, which are excellent for stock ; in fact, 
the bearing farm orchard is unexcelled for a pig pasture. 

Twice a week during the fruit maturing season the trees must be 
carefully gone over and the ripe fruits picked. Apples, peaches, 
pears, plums, cherries, ripen their fruit at different periods, and of 
each of these the products mature at difTerent times. 

Pruning Trees. 

The orchardist, whether he is growing fruit for pleasure or as a 
commercial venture, must begin his pruning with the first year of 
planting. Get the main branches formed at once — "not less than 
three nor more than five" — and radiating out from the stem at dif- 
ferent heights around it, like wheel spokes. Three branches from 
each of these main branches, and three twigs upon each branch is a 
safe rule to follow. 

This frame work makes the foundation principle of all later 
growth and later pruning, making due allowance for the varying 



160 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

growth habits of varieties of fruit. As a rule heavy pruning is not 
wanted ; but annual, even attention to each year's growth does not 
need heavy pruning. If a tree is weak, or diseased, it is advisable to 
prune the top heavily while it is dormant, as each cutting back will 
give the top growth new life, and often restore the tree to vigor and 
health. Trees in normal condition need only the removal of suckers 
and superfluous twigs and branches after they begin to bear. Shape 
the tree before bearing. 

If the trees set out are only one year old, the side branches are 
weak. These should be removed and the main stem cut back to the 
point where the tree is to form its head. If they are two years old, 
cut away all but the main branches already mentioned, and cut these 
back to three bud stubs, possibly four. 

General Directions. 

The Colorado experiment station gives the following general di- 
rections for pruning: 

1. Prune to modify the vigor of the trees, giving it less top to 
support, allowing the sap to flow into the remaining branches. 

2. Prune to produce larger fruit than could be produced if the 
vital forces of the tree were divided among a greater number of 
branches. 

3. Prune to give the trees desirable shape. 

4. Prune in summer to change the trees from wood-bearing to 
fruit-bearing. 

The best time to prune such fruit trees as apple, plum and cherry, 
is after the frost is out of the ground in the spring and before the 
tree blooms. All fruit trees should be pruned so as to keep the head 
of the trees as close to the ground as possible, and thus protect it 
from the hot suns. In the northwest there should not be removed 
from the trunk of any fruit tree any green, thrifty limbs. From the 
top of the head of the trees there should be cut back one-third of last 
year's growth, and also some of the little twigs in and around the 
center, so that the sun can shine in on the growing tree and fruit, 
which will improve its flavor. Shade always impairs the flavor of the 
fruit. 

All fruit growers, though, do not agree as to the time of tree 
pruning. In Iowa it is the habit of some farmers and fruit raisers to 
do pruning when the tree is in full bloom. They claim that by trim- 
ming then, the location of the blossoms is a help in pruning so that 
a tree will bear fruit more evenly. 

Apple, Fear, Cherry and Quince. 

Apple, pear and quince trees can also be pruned early in the fall. 
The apple fruit grows on twigs that are, at least, three years old, and 
care must be taken in pruning not to confuse these with the non-bear- 
ing branches ; as only a small part of the bearing wood should be cut 
each year. Regular yearly pruning is specially needed in apple or- 
chards, whether large or small, as this tree develops very rankly, and 
too much wood is formed at the expense of fruit. With a young 



■- -fM-'Mn' 




b£ 



THE ORCHARD 161 

apple tree leave from three to five main branches radiating at different 
points from the trunk. This central head should begin not less than 
three feet from the ground nor more than about four and a half feet. 
Keep this form for the tree until the time for bearing comes, seeing 
to it that the branches are evenly distributed, cutting back the lead- 
ing shoots so that the tree will not grow too high, and that the head 
may be kept full and bushy, without interfering with the admission 
of plenty of air, light and sunshine to the top. Keeping the trees 
low and open is also necessary to help spraying and harvesting. Mod- 
erate pruning every year, done in this way, will reduce greatly the 
need for excessive pruning after the tree begins bearing. 

Pear trees are pruned in about the same manner, except that, in 
pruning the young tree, head it about one foot lower. The pear's nat- 
ural habit is to grow tall and spindling. Prune this tree so that it 
will spread out and the inside growth will not be dense. Cut the 
main branches back annually to an outside bud, as the last bud left 
should point in the direction to which you want the tree to grow. If 
the bud is left on the outside of the pruned branches, this will send 
the new growth outward. 

Cherry trees, also, are likely to grow tall, unless the spreading 
habit is enforced by severe and annual pruning. After a broad and 
open top is produced, however, the orchard needs but little pruning. 
Wood two or more years old produces cherries. Keep the young 
tree down to three or four main branches, set at different points 
along the stem, and heading out about four feet from the ground. 
Bearing trees need chiefly such pruning as will keep the head open 
to light and air, and remove all dead or broken branches. Cherry 
trees left to grow as they will, reach fifty feet or more often. 

Head quince trees low, from fifteen inches to two feet from the 
ground. Leave four or five main branches. Quinces grow at the 
ends of shoots two or more years old. Head back leading shoots after 
they reach two feet. 

Peaches. 

Peaches produce their fruit on wood of the previous season's 
growth. When you are pruning bearing trees cut back such shoots, 
late in March or early in April, about one-third or one-half. This 
thins out the fruit buds enough, but not so much as to minimize the 
crop. By following this process the bearing wood for the next sea- 
son's crop is much better assured in plenty. Of course, before begin- 
ning the pruning of the bearing shoots, all the dead wood must first 
be cut away, and also the interlocking limbs. A peach tree grows 
out chiefly from the tips of the branches, and is likely to get a straggly, 
untidy habit of growth if not kept well headed in and its inside 
branches cut out annually. 

In starting the young tree leave the main branches not much 
more than eighteen inches long and from eighteen to twenty-four 
inches high. Later pruning will be decided by the habit of growth 
of the peach trees you have. Some peach trees grow in pyramid 
form, that is, with one central branch from the ground to the top, 



162 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

and main branches growing- out as laterals. This kind of a tree 
can be pruned more severely than the other, or vase-form, where 
from a short main trunk several branches come out and grow upright. 
With this form, which is the most desirable, pruning of the main 
branches is likely to do great harm after the first year. Get your 
tree headed as low as possible the first year of setting out, and then 
prune to keep the tree open and spreading. 

Plums. 

Plum trees do not need so much pruning as some others. For 
young trees follow about the same method as for the peach. The 
plum tree, which grows upright, should be kept headed back and the 
main branches pruned to a bud pointing outside. There is a variety 
which grows out in a scattering fashion. The main branches of these 
trees must be pruned to an inside bud, or one that points inside. Some 
plums bear fruit on wood of two years' growth. Others are like the 
peach, with bearing wood of but a season's growth. 

If your plum trees are of but one variety, it will be best to plant 
trees of another kind among them, as some plum trees must be pol- 
lenized from other varieties. Take great care that plum trees don't 
grow too much to wood. If you find they do not bear when the 
proper time comes for bearing, try giving a good stifT dose of prun- 
ing, and leave it with the present season's growth one-third cut away. 
Sometimes plums have a way of bearing so heavily that they suffer 
for several seasons. Care must be taken in pruning that a tree of this 
habit is carefully pruned as to fruit buds in the early season. 

Pruning Tools. 

The proper pruning tools are : two shears, one for hand work and 
the other a pole shears, for work on the upper branches; two saws, 
large and small, or a pruning saw in place of the small saw; a chisel, 
ladder and rope. The cut should be made close to the parent stem or 
twig, and no stubs left. A close cut gets the full benefit of the mount- 
ing trunk sap, which heals the wound before disease germs can get in 
their work. As a sure prevention, however, it is best to paint over 
all large cuts with lead paint of the right tint. Cut smooth and use 
the chisel for smoothing off. 

Lead, yellow ochre, coal tar and grafting wax are all good cover- 
ings for cut surfaces. Anything which is not corrosive or hurtful to 
growth and which will keep the heartwood from rot spores is good. 

Making Over Old Orchards. 

The following method of making old trees new has been prac- 
ticed by Mr. Vescelius, an Iowa fruit grower, who says he regener- 
ated his orchard of 600 apple and peach trees by the process ; so much 
so that in the fall they were overweighted by their load of fine fruit: 

"When the frost is well out of the ground and the weather is 
warm," he says, "remove all the dirt from about the trees down to 
the roots for about three feet around the trunk of the trees, and leave 
the top part of the roots bare for about three days. Then hoe all the 



T H E O R C H A R D 163 

dirt back again, which will leave it some higher close to the body of 
the trees. 

"In this time that the roots are bare you will see them turn from 
a dark to a pink color. You will also find that your trees will be full 
of good, healthy blossoms and later they will be loaded with fine, 
healthy fruit, all smooth and nice and of a much finer flavor than be- 
fore. It will surprise you to see the increase in the amount of fruit 
and improvement in the quality." 

The question of declining apple orchards has been one which has 
been taken up in a scientific manner in Germany, and the German 
papers have been giving a good deal of attention to the matter. A 
brief outline of some of their experiments shows that commercial fer- 
tilizers were heavily applied. 

Of five long rows of apple trees, one row was left untreated and 
the four others had different combinations of manurings. The row 
left unmanured gave 104 pounds of apples per tree during the five 
years from 1900 to 1904, both inclusive, and in the fifth year (1904), 
which was the year of maximum yield for the entire orchard, the 
weight of the apples per tree was 55 pounds and the number 294. The 
best results from manuring were obtained by a complete manure, 
consisting of lyi pounds of sulphate of ammonia, 1^ pounds of muri- 
ate of potash, 3^2 pounds of basic slag per tree per annum, applied to 
the roots during the winter. 

During the five years the yield per tree from this dressing was 
163 pounds of apples, while by the fifth year the bearing increased to 
401 apples, weighing 105 pounds per tree — that is, the weight of the 
apples per tree increased by this manuring from 55 pounds on the 
unmanured trees to 105 on the manured trees, or 90.9 per cent; while 
the number of apples increased from 294 to 401 per tree, or 36 per 
cent. The increase in the average size of the apples is remarkable. 
Those from the unmanured trees averaged 2.98 ounces each, and those 
from the manured 4.19 ounces each. 

In a corresponding experiment with pears (Josephine de Ma- 
lines) similar results were obtained with a dressing consisting of 3 
pounds of nitrate of soda, 2% pounds of muriate of potash, and 5 
pounds of basic slag per tree. In 1904 the yield was 14^ pounds per 
tree from the unmanured trees and 80^ pounds per tree from those 
manured with the mixture. 

How to Top-Graft An Unprofitable Orchard. 

From "Garden and Farm Almanac" 

There is a peculiar fascination for most men in the idea of mak- 
ing over an old orchard by top-working with some better sort and 
changing the varieties of an unprofitable orchard into something 
palatable and paying. Contrary to the notion of many, there is noth- 
ing especially difficult or mysterious in the process, and any enter- 
prising man can do it for himself. Grafting is done preferably while 
the tree is dormant, just before the growth starts in the spring. The 
stubs to be grafted should be from an inch to three inches in diameter. 
One and a half to two inches is best. Cut the stubs off with a sharp 
saw. Cut them from all parts of the tree so that after the grafts are 



164 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

growing and all other branches have been removed the tree will have 
a shapely and well-balanced top. In preparing the tree for top-graft- 
ing it is well to leave some branches untouched to supply foliage till 
the grafts are started. Aside from the pruning saw, the tools needed 
are a mallet and a grafting knife. Grafting knives are commonly sold 
by nurserymen, or if you prefer you can have the blacksmith make 
one for you of an old file. The blade has a heavy back so that it can 
be driven into stubs to split them ; a hook is commonly made upon 
one end for convenience in handling. On the other end is a narrow 
wedge for holding the stub open while the cions are inserted. Be 
careful not to split the stub down farther than necessary to receive 
the cions. 

Cions for top-grafting should be dormant. It is well to cut them 
the previous autumn and store them in a cool place which is not too 
dry. One of the best ways to keep cions is to pack them in layers in 
a box of sand in the cellar. Let the sand be slightly moist, just 
enough so that the cions won't shrivel. Always cut shoots for cions 
from the end of bearing wood. The cions must be of last year's 
growth, never older. Do not use water-sprouts, because the buds are 
not well developed and they are not so likely to grow into good bear- 
ing wood. The cions should be cut from four to six inches long and 
after a little practice, may be shaved properly with two quick strokes 
of a sharp knife. Make them in the shape of a wedge with about an 
inch to an inch and a half taper, having one side thick and the other 
thin. At the top of the wedge on the thick side leave two buds. Two 
cions are usually put in each stub, one on each side unless it be too 
small. The stub heals over better in this way and there is greater 
certainty of getting a successful graft. When they are inserted the 
cions are leaned apart slightly so that there is more likelihood of the 
cambium layer (the part of the bark where the growth takes place) 
of stock and cion touching. The best size for the cion depends some- 
what upon the size of the stub, a quarter of an inch in diameter being 
an average size. They should be pushed firmly in. 

Subsequent Treatment. 

After the cions are properly inserted, knock out the wedge of the 
grafting knife, which has held the split of this stub open, and cover 
all the crack carefully with good grafting wax. This should be pre- 
pared beforehand and must be warm enough to work easily in the 
hand. The hands are thoroughly greased to prevent its sticking. 
There are many formulae for making grafting wax. The following, 
one of the best, is recommended by Fletcher: "Rosin, four parts; 
beeswax, two parts ; tallow, one part, all by weight. Break all the 
material into small pieces and melt together. When all melted and 
thoroughly mixed, pour the hot mixture into a pail of cold water. 
When it is hard enough to handle, grease the hands with hard tallow 
or cheap vaseline, and pull it until it becomes light colored like mo- 
lasses candy. Be sure that the rosin is all melted and do not have 
it appear as little lumps in the completed wax." 

For use in cold weather, when the above will not work, take 6 



T H E O R C H A R D 165 

pounds rosin, 1 pound beeswax, and 1 pint linseed oil; apply this hot 
all over the joints with a brush. It should be put on one-eighth of 
an inch thick. 

For use in warm weather the following- is used : 4 pounds of 
rosin, 1 pound of beeswax, anrl from half a pint to a pint of raw lin- 
seed oil. Melt all together, gradually turn it into cold water and pull. 
The linseed oil should be entirely free from cotton-seed oil. 

The waxing is an important part of the operation and must be 
thoroughly done. Wax the cracks in the stub first, then cover the top 
of it carefully, about the base of the cions. Put a little on the end of 
the cions to prevent drying out. Don't be afraid of using too much 
wax, as the life of the cions and the success of the grafting depends 
upon keeping out all water. 

Spread the wax on the joint about ^-inch thick. When this 
has been spread evenly over the joints a stout cotton bandage 
should be applied and tied or sewed with a strong cord. A sack 
needle is good to use if sewing. The object of the wax is to keep the 
joint from drying out and giving them the best condition under which 
to unite. The bandage prevents the sun from melting the wax. 

The following summer if both grafts on a stub have started to 
grow, the weaker should be removed. Neglect of this often destroys 
the usefulness of both cions by too close crowding. At the same 
time the remaining branches of the original stock may be removed, 
so that all the strength of the tree will go to developing the grafts. 
With a little practice every fruit grower can successfully do his own 
top-grafting. If he prefers, however, to hire it done, he should at 
least cut and prepare his own cions and not run the risk of getting 
water-sprouts or undesirable varieties frorn. a professional "grafter." 
A successfully top-grafted orchard will be bearing good crops of its 
new sorts in three or four years after grafting. 

Danger from Early Frosts. 

The danger from early frosts to the commercial orchard has been 
such a serious matter in the past few seasons that several western 
fruit growers are reported, in the daily press, to have installed oil 
stoves in large orchards. The latest of these reports is that a fruit 
grower of Hutchinson, Kansas, has ordered thirty oil stoves per acre 
for his orchard of 600 acres. The stoves hold ten gallons of oil apiece. 
If any reader doubts this let him write to W. H. Underwood, of 
Hutchinson, Kansas, to verify it, as I do not vouch for the truth of 
the tale. 

Mr. C. E. Mincer, of Hamburg, Iowa, circumvented the late frost 
of the spring of 1910 by placing oil and wood heaters through twelve 
acres of his orchard where his best trees were growing, when frost 
was predicted. He kept these at work for five days, and saved a crop 
of 6,000 bushels from his twelve acres. 

A common plan is to build fires or smudges at frequent intervals 
through an orchard, thereby creating a dense cloud of smoke, which 
hangs over the orchard and blankets it. These fires may be made of 



166 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

any suitable material that is at hand, or special orchard heaters may- 
be purchased. Several makes are now on the market. 

It is important that the fires be rather small in size and distrib- 
uted at frequent intervals. This is because it is undesirable to create 
a heavy and strong draft such as a large fire gives rise to, since this 
draft will carry away to the upper atmosphere the heat and smoke 
that is needed next to the earth. 

Some orchardists have followed the plan of using bags of manure 
to create a smudge. The manure is tightly packed into the bags and 
these are distributed through the orchard so as to be ready for use if 
needed. When frost threatens kerosene is poured on the bag and it is 
set on fire. It will burn slowly, giving off a dense smoke and adding 
moisture to the air, which will assist in forming an effective blanket. 

Insect Pests and Diseases. 

Three hundred million dollars is estimated to be the annual loss 
to this country from insect pests of various sorts. Yet out of seventy- 
five important insects, only two, the Colorado potato bug and the 
chinch bug, are native. The rest have been brought to this country 
in various ways, but chiefly on plants. 

These insect pests are of two general classes — the chewing in- 
sects and the sucking ones. Chewing insects can be fought very 
easily by coating the foliage or any infected part with poison, such 
as paris green, london purple, etc. These contain arsenic, which the 
insect takes as it chews along the plant or leaf. Get on your poison 
early, when the foe is due to appear, and you will have little serious 
trouble. The main thing is to be on the ground first. But with the 
sucking insects you cannot leave your trap for them to fall into. It 
is a hand to hand battle. 

In general it is safe to say that insect pests can be controlled in 
one way or another. But so long as there is plant life there will be 
insect life that will live on the plants. And new pests are continually 
coming up. We can hold these in check by constant vigilance, but 
we can't rout them utterly or exterminate them. The orchardist, 
especially, must make up his mind that to fight insect pests and fruit 
tree diseases is as much a part of his yearly program as it is to culti- 
vate his orchard grounds, prune his trees, and pick his fruit harvests. 
Certainly he will have slim harvests to pick if he does not accept this 
hard fact and adapt his every twelve months of culture to that view, 
beginning with the first year of planting. Whether by arsenical 
spray, the oil solution, the lime-sulphur treatment, hand picking of 
bugs, cutting out infested parts and destroying them, or burning col- 
onies or webs by lighted torches or poles, the battle is always going 
on somewhere. 

San Jose Scale. 

The San Jose scale is a sucking insect, and as it multiplies rap- 
idly, it becomes a great drain on the fruit tree's vitality in a very short 
time. Growth stops perceptibly, the limbs begin to die at the tips, 
and unless spraying is immediately and thoroughly practiced the tree 
dies. Look carefullv after the new growths or twigs to see if the 



THEORCHARD 167 

scale has made its appearance. If there is the slightest indication, 
spray with either the kerosene-soap solution or the lime-sulphur mix- 
ture. The soluble oils now on the market can be bought in readiness 
for solution in water. In fact, don't wait to look for the scale, as it 
is so small, only one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter, that it may not 
be discovered until too late. Spray anyhow, on the principle of the 
ounce of prevention. It is a good plan to do this while the trees are 
dormj^nt. 

The young scale insects can be destroyed by the kerosene emul- 
sion before they secrete a scale. The lime-sulphur washes, used when 
the trees are dormant, will kill the adult scale, but as the kerosene 
emulsion must be used with great care, so that it comes in contact 
with each scale, the vigorous use of both sprays in the dormant sea- 
son is specially advised. If you have only a few trees it is best to 
buy the stock solution of both oil and sulphur mixture. For a large 
orchard the lime-sulphur mixture may be made by the recipe which 
will be found below. Two sprayings are best — one early in the 
spring, before buds swell, and one in fall after leaves drop. 

The small orchardist, however, is the man who is most apt to 
neglect the matter of spraying; and he is the one, therefore, who is 
most to be prodded up as to the absolute necessity for spraying for 
the San Jose scale. Fortunately this question is being made a matter 
of necessity and orchard owners are finding that they cannot continue 
to let even a few scale increase by lack of proper care and preven- 
tion. In California the scale is now practically exterminated, but it 
has spread to other localities, and it will soon be as much of a pest in 
the middle west and the east unless it is met with just as vigorous 
warfare as on the Pacific coast ; where, beside the spraying method, 
entomologists set to work to find the native home of the insect, and 
then import its natural enemy from Australia — the ladybird bettle. 

Spray Formulas. 

Lime-sulphur solution. Small quantity : 

Place five or six gallons of water in a large iron pot and heat it 
to the boiling point. Add twenty-two pounds of the best stone lime 
obtainable and seventeen pounds of sulphur made into a paste. Boil 
this mixture until it turns to a deep red color, which usually requires 
from three-quarters to an hour of rapid boiling. Keep stirring the 
solution all the time it is cooking, and when properly cooked add suffi- 
cient water to make fifty gallons in all. Strain it into the spray bar- 
rel and apply while hot. 

Another recipe. Large quantities : 

50 lbs. lime, 50 lbs. sulphur, 50 lbs. salt. Water enough to make 
150 gallons of the wash. Boil this mixture an hour and a quarter, 
strain through three thicknesses of fine screen mosquito wire netting. 
Take the strainer off_ the bottom of the pump and wrap up this end 
of the pump with some kind of screen wire of four or five thicknesses. 
This will keep the pump from clogging with fine lime. Then use a 
nozzle with a hole about as large as the point of a lead pencil, not too 
small, and drench the trees well while in a dormant state. This wash 



168 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

is cheap, and there is no danger to trees and buds if used at that 
period. The liquid can be applied warm or cold. The insects are 
killed as soon as the wash touches them, either by the burning of the 
caustic fluid or by closing up their breathing pores with the oil solu- 
tion. The heavy ingredients also form a crust on the bark, prevent- 
ing the normal development of the young insects. It is wise, while 
spraying, to keep at hand a quantity of grease free from salt, to use 
in case of personal accident from the lime-sulphur spray. Also grease 
the face, hands and inside of the gloves with this. The driver should 
be well protected and the horses blanketed. Use rubbers also and 
look out well for the face and hands. 

Hibernating insects in fruit and ornamental trees may be treated 
by a carbolic and soap wash made of one pint crude carbolic acid, one 
quart of soft soap, and two gallons of hot water thoroughly mixed. 
Soda and whale oil soap wash is made in the proportion of five pounds 
of sal soda to five gallons of water, heated to a boil, and one quart of 
whale oil soap then added. Apply at about 120 degrees of tempera- 
ture. A very simple treatment is a pound of washing soda to two 
pails of water. Where the trees have a rough bark, scrape first, 
either with a hoe, pr a tree scraper. This removes the shaggy bark 
and the trunks and large branches can then be treated either by a 
wide brush or broom or the spray pump. Do this while they are in 
the dormant period. 

Other Remedies and Preventions. 

My method of preventive treatment for tree girdling by mice is 
to move back the mulching from the body of the trees from six to 
eight inches. If there should be a heavy fall of snow this could be 
banked up and trodded down hard. In case trees have already been 
girdled, bank them with earth as soon as possible, and when the 
grafting season comes on bridge over the girdled spots with cions 
such as are usually used in grafting, and cover again with banked 
earth. I have seen the strychnine method used for getting rid of both 
mice and rabbits, and corn kernels soaked in a solution of strychnine 
and water for twenty-four hours, scattering a few around each tree, 
are no doubt efifectual. But as this method suggests other results 
than the killing of pests it might not be advisable to recommend it 
for general use. Probably the best method as a prevention for rab- 
bits is to trap and snare them. Heavy building paper wrapped around 
the lower trunk to the height of eighteen inches and held in place by 
two ties of pliable wire will keep away mice ; or a wire screen can be 
used. Rabbits do their worst work when the snow is deep and they 
can reach the branches. 

Tar paper is not so good for tree protectors to keep mice and rab- 
bits away as lighter colored paper. The dark color absorbs heat. Use 
light colored building paper, old newspapers, or burlap. Burn brush 
heaps and any old rubbish that will harbor rabbits and keep the o- 
chard free from weeds. Live stock inside of the orchard in winter are 
worse than the rabbits, for they will eat the limbs. A thick white- 
wash is good to keep away both rabbits and borers. 



THEORCHARD 169 

Wire cloth 18 inches high makes a good protection for fruit trees. 
Dip it in oil before placin<^ as a protection against rust through the 
winter. 

However, the safest rabbit around fruit trees is a dead rabbit. 

Blight in Pear and Apple Trees. 

One remedy for blight in pear trees is said to have been found 
reliable after several years' experience. This is to cut all the dead 
limbs off, then with a sharp knife, score all the trees around deeply as 
high as can be reached from the ground. 

The late Prof. Samuel B. Green wrote a brief summary once as 
to the cause of this disease in both pear and apple trees. I have given 
considerable space here to his article, which appeared in the N. W. 
Agriculturist a few years ago. Prof. Green said : 

"Mr. Webber, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, has made 
as careful a study of this subject as any one, and not long ago he pre- 
sented his conclusions at a meeting of the American Pomological So- 
ciety. At that time he claimed that he believed the trouble was caused 
by a disease, a special organism. This organism lived over in the 
wood, which was killed by the disease in the summer, and produced 
sticky spore masses which oozed out from the pustules in the diseased 
wood in the spring. Insects were attracted to it by its sweet taste 
and carried the spores on their feet, or other portions of their body, 
to the trees, and when these germs reached portions of the trees that 
were very suscptible, as on the new growth, or on the trunk where it 
is cracked, they soon started and grew into the tissue of the trees. 

"In proof of this theory he showed that trees that were screened 
by a fine wire netting so that insects could not reach them were en- 
tirely exempt from blight, although they were kinds that were liable 
to this disease and were growing in orchards where all the other trees 
of the same kind were injured by it. In further proof of this he took 
the contents of the nectar carrying glands out of a honey bee that had 
been working near blighted trees and with the contents of these 
glands he inoculated healthy trees and produced the disease. But 
other insects besides honey bees also carry this disease. It seems to 
me that the case is pretty well made out in favor of the theory of this 
blight being produced by disease germs. 

"The question of the treatment is the next point. It is probable 
that if it were possible to cover all the blighted tissue of apple trees 
with thick Bordeaux mixture the disease would not be spread by in- 
sects. It is found in practice, however, that little in the way of a pre- 
vention of this disease can come from the use of fungicides, and the 
most practical remedy seems to be to cut out and burn the diseased 
tissue some time during the summer. This removes the diseased 
wood and so leaves nothing for the production of spores to infect the 
orchard in the spring. I have personally seen very excellent results 
come from this treatment, where orchards were somewhat isolated 
and the infection could not come from near-by orchards that are un- 
•cared for. 

"In this connection it should be noted that there is quite a differ- 



170 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

ence in the immunity of different varieties to this disease, and we 
should aim to plant those that are most resistent to it. Then, too, we 
find that trees making an extremely rapid growth are more liable to 
it than those grown in a rather inferior soil, and this leads to the point 
that we should be careful about forcing a very rapid growth on our 
trees." 

Lime and salt mixed with stable manure makes a good preventive 
of orchard blight. Mix separately : two to four quarts of the barrel 
salt to a load of manure, thoroughly mixed when taken from the 
stable. Then add one bushel of air-slacked lime to the load. 

How Fruit Bearing Trees Should Be Pruned in the Northwest. 

A very important consideration is not to cut off any limbs that 
act as a protection against sun scald on the trunk. Leave all limbs 
low as the fruit can be more easily reached. Trim out in the top and 
keep thin enough to let in the sun. Cut off all stubs and dead limbs. 
They are a menace to the living parts as they harbor disease and 
parasites. Cut the limb close to the main trunk or limb and paint to 
prevent rot. 

Sun scald is the result of the action of the sun in winter on the 
side of the trunk of the tree exposed to the sun. When the sun is 
very warm some of the sap works up from the roots and then freezes 
there. Decomposition takes place and rot begins. This is very in- 
jurious to good fruit production although the tree itself may struggle 
along. It is always best to provide some protection against this in 
young trees, but by proper pruning of older trees the branches will 
act as a natural protection. 

Sun Scald. 

The last of winter is the time to guard against sun scald. If the 
tree heads low the limbs make sufficient protection from the dangers 
of the sun shining on one side of the frozen tree. Or if the trees 
leans to the south or southwest it is not liable to injury. But if erect, 
or it inclines north, the trunk is not sufficiently protected. In that 
case put a board on the south side, or building paper around the 
trunk, or a screen of straw and lath. These last also protect from 
mice and rabbits. Guards can also be made for this last purpose for 
small trees by using four staves of old barrels to a tree, and tie these 
with fine wire near the top, center and bottom. Such guards should 
be put on in November. Guards can also be made out of thin strips 
of elm wood about as thick as shingles and soaked for a little while 
in water. Make these eighteen inches long and twelve broad. Set 
around the tree in a circle and tie with fine wire at top, center and 
base. Cut the wire and bind with pincers. 

Summary. 

To summarize as to orchard growing for the beginner : Find out 
what fruit grows the best in your section and, if possible, travel 
around and look at successful orchards near your locality and learn 
the methods of their workers or owners. 

Select a good piece of land with more than one direction of slope 



T H E O R C H A R D 171 

and with a good drainage, unless you mean to raise only one species 
of fruit. Get your land in the very best shape for setting out trees, 
before you dig a hole, by deep plowing, heavy fertilizing and thorough 
cultivation. The soil for trees should be as finely worked as that for 
vegetables. 

Prepare the holes for setting according to directions given here. 
In planting any tree, always let the strongest roots stand toward the 
prevailing winds, with the tree leaning a little in the same direction. 

If you buy nursery stock, be sure it is the best, take it home care- 
fully yourself a^d see that it is set out as rapidly as possible in the 
previously prepared holes. 

If you try your own seedlings you must take more chances than 
with nursery stock. Follow the same method of transplanting, and 
you may or may not be tolerably successful. But do you really gain 
in the end? Fertilize, cultivate and mulch annually. 

Prune annually. 

Spray several times a year with regularity and efficiency. 

When you start out to kill, be sure you do kill. 

Study the best and improved methods every year. Gather, store 
and market your fruit so that it shall be first grade always. Get your 
reputation established and then keep it at that standard. By this 
method you will get your own standard and be able to reach favorable 
markets without the aid of any packing association. Have your own 
packing house, therefore, and your own style of individual package. 

Last, and most important, be honest about every step of fruit 
growing. From start to finish don't think that big red apples on the 
top of the barrel will balance the poorer ones out of sight. 

Hedge for a Fruit Orchard. 

This hedge is for the farm, for a windbreak and for ornamenting 
around the buildings and gardens, having seven rows running parallel 
12 feet apart. Trees set for a thick hedge must have room in order to 
get strong branches near the ground.. When small in the thick woods 
the tree grows tall and slender, and the lower branches where no sun 
shines on them die and decay. It should be remembered that the sun 
is life and strength in planting thick hedges. This hedge is not to be 
trimmed. Let it grow naturally. The first thing to be done is to pre- 
pare the ground for the hedge. Plow the ground very deep twice, late 
in summer or in August and September, and early in the spring, as 
soon as frost is gone, in order to get rid of the weeds and grass. Be- 
gin to cultivate immediately after planting. Always cultivate soon 
after a rain, as soon as the water is well settled and the ground is in 
good working condition. Where a horse cannot be used, stir the soil 
with a fork-spade from four to six inches deep. Cultivate the hedge 
yearly till it becomes so large and thick that it cannot be worked with- 
out injuring the bottom branches near the ground. Late in the fall, 
about the last of October, mulch the trees with hay, straw or coarse 
litter about ten to twelve inches deep and six to eight feet around the 
tree. Do not remove any mulching from the trees. The coming 
spring spade the mulching into the soil with a fork-spade. Trees for 



172 



WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 



this ornamental hedge should be Russian Golden Willow, Norway 
Spruce, Red Cedar, Colorado Blue Spruce, and American Arbor-Vitae. 
Plant all golden willows in the four outside rows; this will include 
four willow trees on the ends of the three center rows. The remainder 
of these three rows plant to evergreens, Colorado blue spruce and red 
cedar; American arbor vitae and Norway spruce. 

Directions for Planting in the Hedge. 

Dig the holes four feet across or in diameter and thirty inches 
deep; fill the hole nearly two-thirds full of good thick grass sod, lay 
them bottom side up and tramp them down tight. Put on top of 
these sods about four inches of good rich surface soil, place the tree 
in the hole about two inches deeper than it stood in the nursery, sift 
in good rich fine soil between the roots, using the fingers to spread 
out all the roots. When the roots are well covered give the tree a 
thorough soaking. As soon as the water is well settled around the 
roots, fill in more earth. Do not stamp the earth down solid. Give 
it more water and the soil around the roots will be well settled. All 
evergreens should be transplanted with a ball of dirt for safety. Ever- 
greens should be watered every eight days in the evening, each tree 
with a thorough soaking, not sprinkling, for the first two years after 
planting, until the ground commences to freeze late in the fall. Ever- 
greens must go into winter thoroughly soaked in order to winter and 
grow the coming season. It is not safe to depend on local showers 
to water evergreens in the northwest. Water and cultivation will 
cause evergreens to grow very fast in the northwest. It is injurious 
to squirt water on the foliage of evergreens with the hose, especially 
when the sun is shining hot. 

The earth for about six feet around the tree should be dish-shaped. 
By having the earth dished a shower will soak in around the roots. 
When watering, place the hose two or three feet from the trunk of the 
tree flat on the ground. Let the water run as long as the soil will 
take it in, every eight days in the evening. As soon as the water is 
well settled and the ground is in good working condition a fork-spade 
should be used to stir the top soil. Otherwise a crust will form where 
the soil is all clay. Sand should be mixed into the clay, about one- 
fourth, for evergreens. The sand will prevent the soil from baking. 
Mixing the sand in it has a tendency to make the soil more porous 
around the roots, it will take in water more freely and the evergreens 
will grow much faster. A clay subsoil is all right, but when it comes 
up to the "second rail in the fence" it is all wrong. If the soil is all 
sand or gravel a bedding of clay should be put in the bottom of the 
hole to hold moisture. 

The writer has been in several of the best fruit states and has 
been through several of the best counties in Minnesota for raising ap- 
ples and small fruits, such as blackcap raspberries. I have seen 
patches on new land choppings where the trees were about one-half 
of them cut, the largest ones, and taken away. On these new cut-over 
lands I saw the finest patches of blackcap raspberries that I have ever 
seen ; bearing immense crops of the largest and most beautiful berries. 



THEORCHARD 173 

Their winter protection was the scattering forest trees ; their mulching 
was decayed forest leaves and rotted wood. I have also seen apples 
growing thrifty and bearing almost every year in among the oak 
groves. The owner said they were there when he bought the place, 
then several years old. He said that he had lived on this place four- 
teen years and they had borne fine apples almost every year. They 
were the Duchess and Wealthy. Finding such fine fruit growing so 
thriftily among those forest trees was the best of proof for fruit grow- 
ing in the northwest, if it was protected from the cold, bleak wind. A 
farmer should have a large and thick hedge for a wind break on the 
prairies in the northwest to make fruit raising successful. 

In regard to hedges every farmer should enclose from two to six 
acres, including all buildings, with a thick hedge, not only for fruit 
raising but for protection of barn yard. It is safer and better to en- 
close several acres for fruit. More air will circulate in a large place 
and the fruit is not so liable to be frosted by the late spring frosts. 
All fruit trees and berries should be planted inside of the hedge and 
thoroughly cultivated. This hedge can be planted to all willows or 
all English buckthorn or all evergreens. The willows and evergreens 
will look the best the year around, and make the closest and the most 
compact hedge. Three rows of white elms set diagonally twelve feet 
apart on the outside of this hedge would make it a vei"y strong wind- 
break, or it can all be planted to upright ornamental trees, such as 
elms, linden and maple. White ash and elms are to be the trees if it 
is to be all ornamental upright trees. They will stand a very strong 
wind before breaking. 

The farmers in the northwest should quit burning straw 
piles. Straw is too valuable to burn in such a wasteful way. On one 
occasion the writer transplanted about thirty sugar or rock maple ; 
they were about three and a half inches in diameter. I cut them back 
a very little. They were transplanted about April 1, some fifteen years 
ago, in New York state, on a sandy, gravelly hill. I mulched them 
immediately after planting with about two tons of dry straw from 18 
to 24 inches deep and from 8 to 10 feet around the trees. All of them 
lived and grew very fast. The rain was allthe water they got. The 
most of them were tapped seven years ago to make sugar. At the pres- 
ent time they will measure 18 inches in diameter. Forest growing for 
protection is now desired by those who only a few years ago ridiculed 
it. Large quantities of mulching and cultivation will grow hedges and 
timber trees very fast in the northwest; white elms, white ash and lin- 
den and maples are the trees best adapted to this purpose. Neither 
soft nor hard well water should be used when first drawn from the 
well for watering trees and shrubbery. The water should be pumped 
into the tank and allowed to stand from eight to twelve hours before 
watering. 

A Golden Willow Hedge For a Fruit Garden. 

Enclose from three to six acres with a golden willow hedge. This 
is a very rapidly growing hedge. Plant from ten to twelve inches apart 
around the garden. In three years it will turn all stock. On the north 



174 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

and west let it grow ten or twelve feet high to protect the garden from 
the cold winds. On the south and east it does not need to be so high. 
Cut back the first year, one-fourth of the new growth, about the first 
of September. 

The bed can be prepared in the spring. With a plow measure off 
the piece of land you wish to enclose and then drive in stakes at each 
corner. Plow three furrows around the garden from five to ten inches 
deep. Then plant golden willow or buckthorn. They are both per- 
fectly hardy. Be sure and keep them cut back and you will have a 
thicker and better hedge. Both of these are long-lived hedges. 

Plant any windbreak from 75 to 100 feet from the fruit orchard, 
and plow deeply twice in the growing season along the windbreak on 
the inside, between the orchard and windbreak. This deep plowing 
will destroy the roots from the windbreak, so that they will not rob 
the orchard land of its food. 

After planting, mulch thoroughly with stable manure and straw, 
for the first two years. The next thing is to plow and plant the fruit 
trees : From ten to fifty fall and winter apples, twenty of the Wealthy 
and ten of the Duchess of Oldenberg, twenty more of the next best 
apples. Whenever you see fine apples on the market, buy of them and 
save and plant the seed in your garden. Some of the best apples that 
are grown in this country are seedlings. The Tompkins Co., King's, 
and a number of others are seedlings. I would advise you to buy an 
apple by the name of Canada Reds. They are a beautiful red apple. 
I think they can be grown in the northwest from the seed. If you fail 
at first, try another. Plant twenty-five plums of about seven varieties. 
Then you will ensure some almost every year. The Cheney, Forest 
Garden, Wolf, Rockford, De Soto and Weaver are good. Plant twen- 
ty-four cherry trees of six varieties — four of each. Plant the trees in 
rows clear across the garden, twenty feet from the hedge and wide 
enough to drive a load of straw between the rows of full grown trees 
without breaking the limbs. Plant currants in rows ; gooseberries in 
rows from four to six feet apart, so that this garden may be worked 
by a cultivator with a horse. Plant blackberries, raspberries — red and 
black, strawberries, grapes and rhubarb all in rows clear. If you have 
land to spare after you have put in the fruit and berries, then put in 
a nice lot of vegetables for the table. 

Your straw will be worth $4.00 per ton on this garden and you 
will have no straw to burn by taking this course. You will have 
plenty of all kinds of fruit and berries and some to sell, and after the 
garden is once planted it will take but a trifle to keep it in good bear- 
ing shape the rest of your life, while you will have a good place to use 
all your straw and coarse manure. The willow hedge will make a 
great windbreak for your stock and building. 

A farm with this garden is worth $2,000 more. The willow hedge 
can be put around a large piece of land very cheaply by using cuttings 
six or eight inches long. Make a good mellow bed for these. Plant in 
the spring, from the first of April to the 25th of May. Shove down 



THEORCHARD 175 

and leave about one-half an inch above ground. Mulch heavily with 
strav^^ and coarse manure. 

An orchard planted by the writer in the spring of 1911, on sandy 
loam, received the following treatment and made a great growth. 
There were 64 trees in all. After they were set out the land was 
dressed with horse manure at the rate of 100 loads per acre. The next 
spring this was plowed into the soil at a depth of from 6 to 8 inches 
and this was replowed every two weeks throughout the growing sea- 
son. This treatment supplied plenty of plant food and the same time 
acted as a mulch for the retention of moisture. 



CHAPTER XII 

Trees ana Farm Forestry 

Who Plants a Tree. 

He who plants a tree 

Plants a hope, 
Rootlets up through fibres blindly grope ; 
Leaves unfold into horizons free. 

So man's life must climb 

From the clods of time 

Unto heavens sublime. 
Canst thou prophesy, thou little tree, 
What the glory of thy boughs shall be? 

He who plants a tree 
Plants a joy ; 

Plants a comfort that will never cloy 

Every day a fresh reality. 

Beautiful and strong, 
To whose shelter throng 
Creatures blithe with song. 

If thou couldst but know, thou happy tree, 

Of the bliss that shall inhabit thee ! 

He who plants a tree. 

He plants peace. 
Under its green curtain jargons cease, 
Leaf and zephyr murmur soothingly ; 

Shadows soft with sleep 

Down tired eyelids creep. 

Balm of slumber deep. 
Never hast thou dreamed, thou blessed tree. 
Of the benediction thou shalt be. 

He who plants a tree. 

He plants love ; 
Tents of coolness spreading out above 
Wayfarers he may not live to see. 

Gifts that grow are best ; 

Hands that bless are blest. 

Plant Life does the rest. 
Heaven and earth help him who plants a tree. 
And his work its own reward shall be. 



— Lucy Larcom. 



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TREES AND FARM FORESTRY 177 

Farm Forestry. 

ONE of the most important features of the successful farm, small 
or large, is the growth and development of its trees. In this 
day, when so much attention is given to the problems of for- 
estry, it is not necessary to dwell long on the commercial and 
farming advantages of tree growing as a business. It would be a 
good thing for the whole country if the government would foster tree 
planting among farmers either by appropriating money for premiums 
to the best tree growers of farming centers or by schools of forestry, 
such as those of Switzerland, where forestry work has been studied 
for years. So successful have they been there in protecting their fer- 
tile valleys from floods that students from all over the world go to 
their schools of forestry. England, likewise, has been taking up the 
same idea with such energy that 9,000,000 acres in Great Britain and 
Ireland have been set apart for this purpose for a period of 80 years. 
The royal commission estimates that these forests will be self-sup- 
porting in a generation, and that they will yield in time an income of 
about $37,000,000 annually. 

Forestry is. therefore, a subject of vast importance in every part 
of the world. For, aside from a few cases of artificial advantages, 
the fertility of the soil and the needed conservation of moisture 
must be the criterion by which we judge the value of the land. 
The Bible tells us that "the tree is man's life." I firmly believe 
that where appropriations are made for drainage by our legislatures 
about ten times that amount should be at the same time appropriated 
for the planting of forest trees. 

Too many sections of country, both in Europe and America, have 
been rendered useless for fruit or grain crops by the removal of the 
great primeval forests, thus curtailing the amount of rainfall and giv- 
ing free sway for great evaporation through the hot winds of sum- 
mer and through frost by the cold winds of spring. 

This is particularly true in Italy and in the eastern and southern 
states of our own country. The wholesale destruction of the forests 
has been one of the causes of soil exhaustion, or of non-production. 
When the forests are cut away the soil on the high land is left with- 
out protection, and much of it is washed into the valleys, while the 
hills become sterile deserts. The men of this generation should rise 
up and stop this criminal destruction of forests, and thus protect not 
only themselves, but the coming generations. 

Anyone whose farm is without timber should plant a portion of 
his acres in timber trees. After being cared for about three years this 
plot will take care of itself. In order that the farmer may get some 
idea of how more and more valuable timber is becoming, I quote from 
a somewhat recent article on the decay of our lumber trade: 

"The forests of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota originally 
contained a stand of about 350,000,000,000 feet. * * * Lumbering 
began in Michigan and Wisconsin during the thirties, and was of 
small importance until the early seventies. Since then the great pinery 
has been cut over in a way unprecedented in lumbering. In 1873 the 
cut was about 4,000,000,000 feet. It reached high water mark in 1892, 



178 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

when it was over 8,500,000,000 feet. Since then it has steadily fallen, 
and in 1902 it was a little over 5,000,000,000. To the enormous total 
of about 188,000,000,000 feet cut in the last thirty years there must be 
added about 28.000.000,000 feet, or 15 per cent, for laths, shingles and 
minor produce, making- a total of 216,000,000,000 feet. Fifty billion 
feet were probably cut prior to 1873, which would bring the total 
product to about 265,000,000,000 feet. It would seem then, that after 
the cut of 1902, exclusive of second growth, there were 85,000,000,000 
feet standing. There are, however, by careful estimate, not more than 
35,000,000,000 feet of merchantable timber, which also includes un- 
doubtedly a considerable amount of second growth. Of the vast dis- 
crepancy only a part can be put down to error, since we know enough 
of the fire history of these states to ascribe the loss of 60,000.000,000 
feet to fire. These figures show that it is a safe and conservative 
statement that the end of white pine is near, and that ten years will 
see it disappear as an important factor in the lumber trade. 

"The present stand of yellow pine in the southern states is esti- 
mated to be about 137,000,000,000 feet. For the census year of 1900 
the total cut of yellow pine was given as nearly 10,000,000,000 feet. 
These figures show that at the present rate of consumption the present 
stand of yellow pine will be exhausted long before a second crop can 
be produced to take its place." 

Bringing these statistics down to the present we find that the 
consumption of yellow pine now amounts to about thirteen billion 
feet ; that most of this comes from the south and the state of Wash- 
ington ; that about twenty-seven billion feet of other lumber was cut 
in 1909; that Douglas fir has risen to second place and white pine 
fallen to third place in point of production ; that the supply of white 
Oak for railroad ties is decreasing so fast that cheaper and more plenti- 
ful woods are being seasoned and treated for that purpose, the lodge- 
pole pine of the northwest being one variety. The same is true of 
the manufacture of pulpwood. In this case scrub pine, white fir and 
inferior woods are now employed. 

Value of Tree Planting. 

The fact that the government has just received damages from a 
railroad for young forest growth burned in the Black Hills National 
Forest is another sign of the growing interest in the protection of for- 
est reproduction. There are yield tables now being prepared by which 
the time necessary to produce a merchantable crop of given timber per 
acre, and its comparative value during growth, can be estimated for 
purposes of sale, condemnation or damage claims. These tables will 
be accessible to all farmers, and every man who contemplates forestry 
to any degree should avail himself of them. 

The natural inference from all these statistics is that as a com- 
mercial investment the planting, preservation and cultivation of the 
hardier native trees that are disappearing so rapidly is to be one of 
the problems of the farmers of this and the next generation. It is not 
a get-rich-quick labor, but every year that it is done on farms adds 
greatly to their value. 




Japanese Tree Lilac planted by E. J. Grinnell. 

This is a very hardy species of Lilac and grows in the form of a tree. 

It does not bush out at the root. 



TREES AND FARM FORESTRY 179 

As a general law it may be said that no matter what the mois- 
ture conditions of a locality may be, tree planting- will greatly improve 
the value of farming lands. If you can grow anything, on a soil you 
can grow a tree there. When once you have grown the trees, far- 
reaching and beneficial changes in your crops and fields will result. 
In dry countries, where hot winds prevail such as western Kansas, 
some parts of Colorado and Nebraska, and northern Oklahoma, they 
have already derived great benefit from the planting of windbreaks 
and shelter belts, which were planted by the advice of the Forestry 
Service. 

The same has been long true of the Dakotas, where tree planta- 
tions have helped the farmers in the development of even their rich 
lands. The forestry bureau is authority for the statement that the 
strips of land that farmers in Illinois might divert from agriculture, in 
creating shelter belts, would be put to better use than if continued in 
crops, because the remainder of the land would be so much benefited 
by the change. 

Before planting trees for forestry purposes the land should be 
enriched with a heavy dressing of stable manure, straw or any good 
top dressing and plowed under. 

The spring, of course, is the best time for planting. The trees 
should be set in straight rows, six feet apart. In order to give them 
a good start they should be carefully cultivated for two or three years. 
During the third year (after planting) those to be used for timber 
should be closely trimmed, leaving only a very small top. Leave all 
brush on the ground to hold the leaves. There should be some rows 
planted ten feet apart, so that a wagon loaded with straw may drive 
in. Using it for mulching would make the straw piles much more 
valuable than to burn them. 

Methods of Tree Planting. 

Plant small trees and cultivate thoroughly. Elm trees and al- 
most all kinds of trees can be grown to a large size in a few years by 
heavily manuring or mulching and cultivating. Trees will grow in 
one vear with this treatment as much as they will in six years in sod, 
thick grass or weeds without fertilizing and steady cultivation of the 
soil. 

The more the ground is stirred the greater will be its moisture 
content. A large quantity of straw or hay manure put a little distance 
from the trunk or main stem will give an excellent sort of mulch. 
Stock should be kept away from tree plantations. 

Elms, hard and soft maples, green ash, lindens and other trees 
can be grown in gravel or sand with rains alone serving as moisture, 
if the following method of planting is followed : 

For one to three-inch trees dig round holes three feet deep and 
four feet in diameter. For somewhat larger trees six to eight feet in 
depth and the same in diameter. In preparing the smaller hole put in 
one foot of clay and one foot of good black earth above clay. Pulver- 
ize this well and set the tree on it, keeping the roots spread out. Then 
fill in around the roots very closely with the best of rich soil, carrying 



180 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

this layer up to within six inches of the top. Finish to the surface by 
a layer of well rotted manure and over this spread a rounded cover of 
good black dirt. If the roots are good and have not been exposed to 
the air for a moment, and the tops have been cut back closely before 
planting, trees set out by this method and thoroughly cultivated with 
the fork-spade once a month, will make sure and rapid growth even in 
a sandy soil. 

Another variation of this method is to put layers of grass sods 
upside down in the bottom of the holes from a foot to eighteen inches 
deep, after the clay soil has been put in. Heavy grass sods are excel- 
lent fertilizers and great moisture holders. Wherever extra watering 
is necessary it should be applied from four to six feet from the trunk 
and allowed to soak through the soil. If the moisture is applied too 
close the soil bakes there and roots will not thrive with dry, hard soil 
at the base of either tree or shrub. 

Aim to establish forest conditions as rapidly as possible. Set 
thickly on thoroughly tilled soil. Such planting gives shade rapidly 
and thus controls weeds and grass, and if located on the south, west 
and north of buildings and fruit and vegetable gardens greatly aids in 
their profit. Thick planting, however, is nature's method for efficiency, 
and insures straight stocks, free from lateral limbs. 

The Elm Tree. 

I should plant ninety-nine white elms to every hundred trees I 
planted, and the one hundredth would often be an elm. The hard 
maple is a desirable tree. The elm tree, however, as a windbreak for 
the northwestern states is unsurpassed. It is easily transplanted, 
grows fast, is hardy, long-lived, tough, yet elastic in fibre, and there- 
fore less likely to split ofT at forks or break off limbs in wind storms. 
As a timber tree it is not of so much value, but for decorative or street 
purposes or in long lines of protection it is superb. 

A writer in one of the western agricultural papers said not long 
ago: 

"I have one of these trees which I brought in a wagon thirty 
miles, about thirty-seven years ago, and planted with my own hands, 
that measures six feet and eight inches in circumference a foot above 
the ground, is sixty feet high and has a sweep of limbs of fifty feet. 
To my wife and me that tree seems almost like one of our children — 
and the best of it all is that it stays at home." 

Planting for Shade and Ornament. 

When planting for shade purposes, holes for medium-sized trees 
should be three feet deep and four feet wide each way. Put from 
twelve to fourteen inches of well rotted manure in the bottom. This 
covered by a light covering of good black soil will make a good foun- 
dation. Upon this set the tree, arranging the roots carefully, after 
well treading down this subsoil. A layer of black dirt is then filled 
in to about ten inches of the top. Coarse stable dressing upon this 
to fill up to the surface level. Above this, cover with earth well banked 
for a radius of about two feet and four inches above the natural sur- 




I 



TREES AND FARM FORESTRY 181 

face. Cultivate often around the tree for the first year and mulch 
heavily with manure the second year, then cover again with dirt. 

Among our desirable native trees of the Northwest, the common 
wild black cherry, as also the red cherry, which last has a finely col- 
ored stem and limbs, make excellent ornamental trees. The black 
cherry grows about as rapidly as the white ash, and one variety has a 
graceful weeping habit of growth. The tent caterpilar is the greatest 
pest to this tree, but these can be controlled by care. The honey 
locust is also a hardy grower up to the northern line of Iowa. If 
possible get the kind that bears no pods. All these trees will grow 
from the seeds, if given the usual garden culture. The American 
linden, or basswood, if raised from seed and planted singly, makes a 
desirable and fine shade tree. The Buckeye, a variety of chestnut 
tree which does not blossom, is still a beautiful tree. This also grows 
at present as far north as northern Iowa, and could probably be 
made hardier by selection. 

Mr. Emmans' Grove. 

(A Personal Letter.) 
In response to the numerous inquiries as to the history or origin 
of my grove of elm trees, located at the corner of James and Douglas 
Avenues, in Green's Addition, Minneapolis, I would say, I have never 
done anything that has given me greater results, considering the time 
and money spent, or that has returned me so much public admiration 
as my little nursery. In substance, I had a double corner, 100x135 
feet, diagonally across the street from my residence, that I didn't care 
to dispose of at present ; therefore, I thought I would set it out in 
shade trees. In the spring of 1899 I went to Lake Harriet and pur- 
chased of the Park Board, out of their nursery, little elm trees about 
2 inches in diameter, and set them out in rows, 10 feet apart each way. 
I watered and cultivated them several times during the early season 
of 1899 and 1900, and have done nothing with them since and today 
they speak for themselves. In the ten years that they have been set 
out they have grown until many of them will measure from 10 to 12 
inches through. They cost me in the spring of '99, $1.25 each, set out, 
and today they are worth on the ground standing, form $15 to $40 
each. If the above be true, please inform me of an easier or quicker 
way of making money. 

N. H, Emmans. 
Mr. Emmans' grove of elm trees is a marvel, considering the short 
time they have been planted. I have seen many trees planted in the 
southern states, but this grove surpasses them all for rapid growth 
and is proof that timber can be grown very rapidly in the northwest 
if it is given the right cultivation. Elms should be planted ten feet 
apart. At a low estimate over ten thousand trees can be grown on 
ten acres. After six years of growth each tree would bring five dol- 
lars, making the ten acres worth twenty thousand dollars, if all the 
trees were sold. From this snapshot estimate a fair idea as to the 
real value of farm forestry can be gathered, for there are many trees 
not so slow growing as elms which will be just as valuable for crop 



182 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

protection, farm repairs, fuel for the home, and an annual cut for mar- 
ket purposes. 

RAPIDITY OF GROWTH OF TREES. 

Beginning with a three-inch sapling the following named varieties 
of trees will, in twenty years, under favorable conditions, attain a 
diameter approximately as follows: 

Inches. 

White or Silver Maple 21 

American White Elm 19 

Basswood 17 

Red Maple 16 

Yellow Locust 14 

Box Elder 14 

Hard Alaple 13 

Red Oak 13 

Scarlet Oak 13 

White Ash 12 

White Oak 11 

Hackberry 10 

With plenty of cultivation and straw mulching the growth of 
trees in this list will surpass the figures given. 

Trees for the Northwest. 

Plant trees for forestry purposes in the northwest that are 
adapted to the climate. Among these the white elm heads the list, as 
it grows rapidly and is long lived. Soft maple and box elder grow 
well, but the winds are apt to be destructive to them. The green 
ash is hardy, but is a very slow grower. Some varieties of pine will 
grow. These, however, are not advisable for wood or timber, but 
make good windbreaks, especially the tamarack, cedar and balsam. 

Plant a good grove of from ten to twenty acres, and apply all 
your surplus straw and manure to that timber land. No stock should 
be allowed to run in this timber. By this method of forestry the 
farmers of the country can have plenty of wood and timber. Remem- 
ber, however, that trees planted for timber or sawing lumber must be 
trimmed when very small to get rid of the knots high up on the trunk 
or body. 

Trees are a good deal like grain in that that they can be made to 
grow slowly and yet live and thrive. Or they can be so started and 
encouraged that they will grow rapidly. The farmer who can develop 
a good stand of timber the quickest has so much more capital to 
reckon on each year, and in twenty-five years even the slower growing 
trees will be marketable for building purposes. 

The hardy catalpa may be grown in a generation at a great profit. 
A Nebraska man says he set out twenty acres of one year old catalpas 
in 1889, first putting the ground in a thorough state of cultivation. 
For two years he kept up the cultivation, and after that gave no fur- 
ther care, except to prune a portion and furnish needed protection 




o 



uj j; u 

H - 6 



TREES AND FARM F O R E S T R \' 183 

against fire and tramp live stock. In 1906 he harvested the crop, sell- 
ing over four thousand dollars worth of posts and poles, and over a 
thousand dollars of cord wood. He figured that his investment had 
realized him $152.07 per acre, while from his old stumps he planned 
to harvest a second crop in about ten years. If the trees had been set 
8 ft. instead of 4 ft. apart they would have yielded larger posts in the 
16 years by selling off alternate trees when 8 years old. 

In a northern climate, however, the catalpa is not hardy, unless 
grown from northern seed. They will winter-kill more or less. 
Where the temperature is milder and the soil fertile the catalpa grows 
easily. If they are planted in rows and cultivated after the method 
of the afore mentioned catalpa grower, they will soon prove of com- 
mercial value. 

The staunch oak outranks any tree that is used for timber, both 
for its beauty of grain and durability. Whether the white, the red or 
the black variety is grown, they can all be cultivated for forestry pur- 
poses by planting the acorns in the fall in rows wide enough to culti- 
vate as you would a field of corn or any other cultivated crop. The 
oak is a slow grower, and marketable results cannot be expected for 
many years. Oaks can stand both extreme heat and cold, but of late 
years the borer has ravaged them in some localities. The beautiful 
chestnut trees of the east have also suffered greatly from disease in 
recent seasons. 

Prompt and efTective attention is the only thing that will save 
trees when they have been once infected by disease or insects. 

Any farmer planning to devote several acres of his land to for- 
estry would do well to write to the Chief Forester, Department of 
Agriculture, at Washington, D. C, and inquire if a free forestry station 
cannot be established on his farm. If consent is had to this he 
will probably get some valuable advice suited to his own section. 

The Care of a Woodlot. 

From "Garden and Farm Almanac" 

Woodlots dififer enormously in the kinds of trees which compose 
them. They vary greatly, too, from changes in the forest resulting 
from outside causes, of which fire and cutting are the most important. 
You obviously cannot manage successfully a New England woodlot 
of beech, birch, and maple under the methods required for a mixture 
of yellow poplar and other southern hardwoods in the Appalachian 
region. But certain practical principles of forest management hold 
good for all woodlots ; it is their local application only that varies. 
Printed suggestions are not alone enough to point the way to the best 
management of your individual forest problem efifectively. 

Woodlots fall into several great classes as regards the character 
and condition of the forest growth and corresponding treatment neces- 
sary. The common type is that in which trees varying widely in age 
are growing together. Uneven-aged woodlots usually contain several 
kinds of trees, and they occur only where natural forest conditions 
have not been greatly disturbed by cutting or fire. When the original 
forest has been materially changed the stand is sometimes approxi- 



184 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

mately even-aged, all the trees being of about the same size. This is 
characteristic of second growth either from seed or from stump shoots, 
on cut over land. In some woodlots the trees fall into tvv^o or more, 
but usually two, distinct classes of age and size. Those two-storied 
forests are often caused by the mixture of two species, one relatively 
tolerant and the other intolerant of shade. An underwood of hem- 
lock is frequently found among white pine, or a growth of balsam 
under an upper story of spruce for just this reason. Again the wood- 
lot is sometimes composed of scattered large trees, in which young 
growth, as the result of fire, over cutting or grazing, or a combination 
of these causes, is entirely absent. 

In the uneven-aged woodlot, exceedingly careful cuttings are 
necessary. The varied mixture of trees of different kinds and sizes 
does not present a problem which can be met throughout by the uni- 
form method of cutting advisable in an even-aged stand. Each group 
of trees offers a new problem. But the uneven-aged woodlot is gener- 
ally in urgent need of what are called improvement cuttings. These 
are aimed directly both at harvesting the mature timber and at improv- 
ing the general condition of the forest. Improvement cuttings, in order 
to be most effective, have generally to be made by a process of indi- 
vidual selection of trees which ought to come out. If you cut all trees 
of a certain kind and size in such a forest within hard and fast limits 
some parts of it would be opened up too severely, while in others even 
a heavier cutting would be necessary. But you can greatly improve 
its condition by making your cuttings conform to the following gen- 
eral rules : 

Cut, first of all, unsound, unpromising or badly shaped trees of all 
kinds for which you have use or can find a market. Be content to har- 
vest some of them even if there is little profit in it. It will pay in the 
improvement of the forest. This is the first and most important step 
which is essential in order to put your woodlot in condition to produce. 
If you leave these over mature and failing trees uncut they will eat 
up in decay what the thrifty trees are gaining. It is for exactly this 
reason that the virgin forest is practically unproductive. It merely 
holds its own because what should be used goes to waste. 

Another important consideration in your cuttings is to encourage 
promising young growth by cutting out old trees which retard it. 
Don't let branchy old trees, even of valuable kinds, check the growth 
of thrifty saplings. Nature provides for that in the course of time by 
the death of the old trees. But you can assist nature by removing 
them promptly and at the same time harvest material which would 
otherwise go to waste. If you wait too long the saplings will be 
dwarfed or malformed and will fail to respond to the increased light 
which the cutting gives. The larger the young growth, the more diffi- 
cut it is to fell the old trees without injuring it. 

Observation in your woodlot will soon show you which trees 
grow fastest. It will teach you a great deal about how they compare 
in demands upon light and upon soil. Use this knowledge in making 
vour cuttings. Encourage the fastest growing trees if their value 
justifies it. Don't cut out the old trees over shade-enduring young 



TREES AND FARM FORESTRY 185 

growth — maple or white pine for instance — with as heavy a hand as 
if the young growth required much more light, as in the case of birch 
or yellow poplar. Encourage the growth of trees in those localities 
which they prefer. Go easy with the axe on dry southern slopes and 
on shallow rocky soils. Make entirely sure that there is young growth 
coming on to take the place of the trees you cut out. It is exceedingly 
hard to get trees back upon such unfavorable localities if you handi- 
cap them by over cutting. If you are in doubt whether a tree should 
come out leave it standing. The harm resulting from cutting too little 
is much easier to remedy than from cutting too much. You can cure 
the former with the axe, whenever the need arises ; the latter takes 
many years to cure. If the improvement cutting lets in too much 
light the remaining trees freed from shade at the side, will grow 
branchy instead of putting on height growth. That is why in dense 
stands the trees are tall and clean of branches while in open stands 
height growth falls off and the trees are branched almost to the 
ground. Another bad result of too heavy an improvement cutting is 
the drying out of the soil through its exposure to sun and wind, which 
not only lessens its value for tree growth, but also makes it exceed- 
ingly difficult or even impossible for seedlings to spring up from it. 
This is particularly true when the cutting is suflficiently heavy to in- 
vite a growth of grass and weeds. In regular woods it is generally 
both practicable and advisable to make so-called improvement cut- 
tings entirely separate from cuttings intended to invite reproduc- 
tion or, in other words, to create conditions favorable to the 
germination of self-sown seed and the growth of seedlings. 
But in irregular woods, whose conditions closely resemble those 
of the virgin forest, the improvement cutting generally has to serve 
as a reproduction cutting as well. This means that the closest atten- 
tion must be given not only to removing unprofitable trees, either 
on account of their kind, quality or position in the forest, but also to 
the effect of their removal upon the forest of the future. For example, 
it would be a mistake to cut all the seed-bearing ash in your woodlot 
simply because they are ripe, if there were not enough young ash al- 
ready established to make sure the species would hold its own in the 
mixture. It would be far better to leave some of the old ash standing 
for a few years, to act as seed trees. Remember always that every 
mature tree you cut means a material change in the balance of power 
in your woodlot, so far as the young growth to come is concerned. 
Cut cautiously in inviting reproduction. An ill-considered cutting 
may so reduce the seed-bearing trees of a valuable species that it will 
be practically absent from the second growth which follows. Again, 
too heavy a cutting in a mixed forest often enables a valueless species 
to take possession of the ground, as a result of change in the amount 
of light admitted to the soil. If you remember that you can't change 
nature in the uneven-aged woodlot — you can merely assist her — you 
will not go far wrong. 

What the farmer can sometimes do with his own timber may be 
seen from the story which comes from Elma, Washington. Elma is 
in the midst of the great fir timber belt on the western slope of the 



186 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Cascade mountains. Near here was found a giant Douglas fir, very 
straight. When scaled it was found to contain 40,000 feet of service- 
able lumber. 

The tree was cut into six logs, the first or butt being twenty-eight 
feet in length. Inside the bark the stump measured seven feet and 
nine inches in diameter. The distance to the first limb of this tree 
was 100 feet, and the total height of the tree was over 300 feet. 

At the standard price of $25 a thousand the lumber was worth 
more than $1,000. 

From this one tree was built a fourteen-room, two story and a 
half house. 

To Summarize As To Farm Forestry. 

1. Decide whether you will plant your woodlot as a separate 
division of the farm, or as shelter belts, extending as much as possible 
around the farm and as wide as possible. 

2. Get information from the Bureau of Forestry as to the trees 
best suited to your own locality. This department has a practical 
handbook on this subject. 

3. If possible, enrich and cultivate by plowing the plot or plots 
intended for forestry. 

4. Use continual cultivation with a fork spade once a month 
for about three years, from four to six feet around the young trees 
through the growing season. Late in the fall mulch heavily and early 
in the spring use additional fertilizing. 

5. Prune and thin out for commercial or farm purposes as fast 
as the trees develop. 

The states should make appropriations to encourage the growth 
of trees, by premiums for the most successful results. In Switzer- 
land, as I have said, the methods adopted by the government have a 
high reputation, and the schools of forestry are sought by students 
from all over the world. Get the children of the farms of the United 
States interested in the work. Give prizes of land — not less than an 
acre — to the children who have the best success in growing the native 
trees of their locality. Let the departments of agriculture of each 
state furnish tested seed or seedlings for this purpose and encourage 
the work by scientific supervision. This would not only be an incen- 
tive to the greater interest of farm children in farm life and its re- 
sults, but it would impress upon them the great lesson that pruning 
and training are the best for all growing things and that nothing liv- 
ing ever gets too old to be disciplined. 

Trees, Planting of Shrubbery. 

When planting trees and shrubbery of any kind, always dig deep 
holes having large diameter with a good circumference so that the 
tree and shrub will have room to retain plenty of moisture. In the 
hole before the planting place about four inches of old well rotted 
manure, tread it down good to the bottom of the hole, then place three 
inches of good black soil on this, then another layer of old well rotted 
barnyard manure three inches thick, then place two inches of black 
soil. Then set the trees or shrubbery of any kind, and fill in around 



TREES AND FARM FORESTRY 187 

the roots with the best of soil, leaving sufficient room for moisture 
from rain, etc. Then mulch from ten to twelve inches deep. Trees 
and shrubbery planted in this way will grow rapidly and will retain 
the moisture in a case of long drouth. 

Very often in early spring the ground around the trees is found 
hard and dry so the cultivation should be started then and continued 
throughout the entire season. Should the spring moisture be lost 
by starting late to cultivate, it cannot be retained again that season, 
consequently the plants cannot do so well as in early cultivation. 
This method of planting trees and shrubbery has proven a great suc- 
cess wherever it has been tested. This is also true of fruit orchards 
with all kinds of fruit trees. The cultivation should continue through 
the entire season until late in the autumn. This will retain the 
moisture and the buds will set. This is true of all kinds of trees and 
shrubbery. The cultivation should continue until very late in the 
autumn. 

The season of 1910 was a very hard one for the northwest. 
There were no good rains and very few and light local showers. In 
the spring of that year I transplanted a number of large ornamental 
shade trees (white elm and lindens). They measured from 6 to 7 
inches in diameter and I retained their natural full top or head. 
They were dug with a ball of earth which was wrapped in burlap 
tightly to hold it. The subsoil into which they had to be placed was 
light sand so I had them dug deeper than usual and had heavy clay 
hauled a distance of four miles. Put one load in each hole and made 
it basin shaped so as to retain moisture. The trees not only lived 
but made a great growth during a season that proved a severe test 
for most trees. 

The hardwood timber needs a stronger soil than the soft varieties, 
so ordinarily a tract of land that supports for instance white oak trees 
is considered very good agricultural land. 

The climate of course has a lot to do with the size of trees. 
Warm localities produce the largest trees provided soil conditions are 
right. Thus California produces her giant Redwood trees and Ore- 
gon and Washington the enormous fir trees. On the other hand in 
localities where the winters are long and cold, the forest trees are 
very apt to be dwarfed and often cracked from freezing. Thus the 
trees with least sap are more adapted to these regions. The elm. 
green ash and most varieties of evergreens are in this class. The 
maples, box elders and others containing a large quantity of sap are 
not so hardy for extremely cold locations. 

A tree which is only two inches in diameter, that has grown wild 
in the natural forest or thicket oftentimes m.ay be from twenty to 
thirty years old. 

A nursery-grown tree of the same size would be only eight years 
old. The latter is a much hardier tree and less liable to attacks by 
insects and disease because it has a complete system of fiberous roots 
which are lacking in the forest-grown tree. 



CHAPTER XIII 

Evergreens 

THERE seems to be a general impression among farmers and 
home builders of all localities that evergreens are hard to grow 
successfully. And while riding through country districts the 
number of dead evergreens one sees in many home grounds, 
only strengthens belief that this idea is general. But is this not be- 
cause the average person does not know with what ease evergreens 
adapt themselves to surroundings and take firm hold on the soil if 
they are given the right care from the start? 

The cone bearing evergreens that are native to the northwest 
give the farmer or the landscape gardener some of the rarest species 
of ornamental trees, lending as they do, color to the winter land- 
scape when other tree foliage is gone. Carefully handled, they can 
be transplanted as well as any other tree. 

One row of evergreens, it has been said, will protect from wind, 
as well as several rows of deciduous trees. Both spruce and pine are 
sure to grow if they are not already dead at the root when set out. 
Get your plants from a reliable nursery house as near your home as 
possible. Don't expose the roots to the air for a moment. Get small 
seedling trees, if you can afford it, rather than try the seeds yourself. 
They pay especial attention in nurseries to the treatment of the root 
system with a view to transplanting and you will probably gain two 
years of growth by a very small outlay of money. 

A good method for planting these trees is to use swamp moss. 
Dig the holes the same as for other shade trees, then place this swamp 
moss from four to six inches thick on the roots of these trees, then 
cover thoroughly with good soil and mulch on top again about three 
inches deep with rotted wet hay or straw. When this is thoroughly 
wet it holds the moisture for a long period of time and seldom ever 
dries out. Ninety-nine per cent of trees planted in this way will thrive 
and grow very rapidly, and the foilage will be rich and plentiful. 

Set these seedling trees out in nursery rows about five feet apart 
and three feet apart in the row. This enables the cultivation of the 
rows in the summer. It is not best to set small evergreens after Sep- 
tember. Cultivate frequently. Keep from severe drought by water- 
ing, and mulch thoroughly. If you can, bring your plants from the 
nursery yourself, have the holes ready for immediate planting, follow 
the directions for planting given in this chapter, and cultivate and 
mulch for three or four years thereafter. In ten years you will have 
a windbreak that will save you ten per cent on the money invested, 
and add at least that much to your farm's value. 



EVERGREENS 189 

I repeat again that evergreens can be grown on all soils by culti- 
vation. Though the natural home of the evergreen is in deep rich 
bottom soils, in swamps where the fertility has been washed in for 
centuries and centuries, yet the writer's experience in removing and 
cultivating all kinds of evergreens convinces him that the right culti- 
vation can make almost any evergreen grow. Old, well rotted man- 
ure, well spaded in the first year with a fork-spade, and this treat- 
ment continued for five or six years, will promote growth and foliage 
of a bright glossy green velvet color. As one evergreen culturist says : 

"What a wonderful revolution there would be in the climate of 
our northern states if every section line could be marked by a belt of 
evergreens, 75 feet high. The sweep of winds across the bleak prairies 
would be so arrested and broken that we believe that the snow in a 
large share of the country would lie comparatively level through the 
winter. The winter rides along our highways would be calm and com- 
fortable to a wonderful degree. The troubled winds that in haying 
and harvest, and at other times, almost stop some classes of farm 
work, would be greatly lessened, or almost unknown. Drying winds 
that curl the corn and destroy other crops would almost disappear, 
and how interesting the country would appear with its long lines of 
green, both winter and summer." 

Varieties. 

The best and hardiest evergreen for the northwest is the Colo- 
rado blue spruce. There are three or four varieties of this species, but 
all are from the same family. They vary from the richest green and 
blue green to a dark silver blue, the latter fading the least in the sun. 
It is a native of the Rocky mountains, where it is found among the 
upper snows, and its hardiness to withstand cold, heat, drouths and 
floods is well established. Next to this evergreen, 1 would place the 
Douglas fir and the white spruce for hardy qualities. 

For hedges the American arbor vitae and the arbor vitae pyram- 
idalis are excellent northwestern growers. The foliage of the 
American arbor vitae being finely cut and very dense, it is especially 
good for ornamental hedges. When once established it grows rapidly 
and, all things considered, it is perhaps the best known and most 
popular evergreen in cultivation, either for single specimens on a 
lawn, planted in clumps, or as a hedge for use or ornament. 

Arbor vitae pyramidalis, as its name shows, grows symmetrically 
in slender pyramid-shaped heads of dark green. Being very hardy 
and vigorous in growth, it also is a favorite evergreen. 

When To Transplant and How. 

The best time to transplant the Colorado blue spruce is from 
May 12 to May 28 or June 10. Trees of this variety, it is vC-ell known, 
can be safely transplanted in all sizes, if the following directions are 
carefully observed : 

First bandage in the branches closely with good strong burlap. 
Then dig around the roots in a circle whose circumference increases 
with the size of the tree, as you must be sure that you will include 



190 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

enough soil to save all the roots. For trees 3 feet in height leave an 
earth ball of 30 inches in diameter on the roots and shaped about like a 
hen's egg. Dig down from 2 to 3 feet before bandaging this root ball. 
Bandage this ball before tipping the tree, using stout burlap, so that 
no dirt will escape, and sew the burlap firmly with strong binding 
twine. Before turning the tree over loosen the dirt ball at the bottom 
with a spading-fork, or cut with a sharp shovel-spade. This insures 
the final removal of the under roots without losing the soil ball. Re- 
plant the same day that the trees are dug, in good mellow soil, with 
all grass or weeds removed within a circle of from 6 to 8 feet. Leave 
on the burlap root bandage when planted, but before putting the last 
two or three shovels of dirt around the tree cut open the top of the 
bandage so that the water can go down freely around the roots. Use 
water very thoroughly after planting. 

Spade well and in a large circle around the trees every two weeks, 
from 4 to 6 inches deep — even deeper in dry weather — until the first 
of September. Remember that cultivation is the life of all trees, and 
especially of evergreens, which require a great deal of moisture. 
Spade before it rains and after showers, in order to make use of all 
natural moisture, and if all mulching is spaded in with the fork-spade 
the showers will go down deeper into the soil. 

In transplanting large evergreens allow them to branch freely 
near the ground, as this keeps moisture m the soil, as well as makes 
the tree more symmetrical. Never turn the hose on the foliage when 
watering, nor when cold. The reason why so many evergreens fail in 
the northwest is that they are not given plenty of water in the latter 
part of the season. They froze up in dry soil. If the rainfall is light 
late in the fall the soil should be thoroughly soaked every day until 
winter sets in. 

Seedling Evergreens. 

Seedling evergreens are those that have not been transplanted. 
I often hear people say that they cannot get seedling evergreens to 
grow. But the great secret of transplanting and growing seedling 
evergreens successfully is to keep the roots moist perpetually from the 
time they are taken out of the soil until they are safely planted in 
the home grounds. This care begins before the seedling is dug by pre- 
paring a deep puddle of mud, clay preferably, two or three feet deep, 
in which to place the tree, standing, the moment it is taken from the 
soil. The mud should be quite thick, so that the roots will be thor- 
oughly covered. When ready to lift from the mud bath wrap the 
roots of each tree separately with wet moss or fine hay. Then burlap. 
Transplant just as the buds are swelling. If moved too early the 
buds often dry. If too late they break easily. 

All kinds of young and small evergreens planted where exposed 
to sun and wind should have shades placed around them. Take oak 
brush, or some young oaks from three to four feet high with the 
leaves all on them, and stick these down about six inches in the ground 
and from eighteen to twenty-four inches from the trees. Put these in 
a circle, with the brush leaning towards the evergreens. They must 
be so placed that they will shade from the bright winter sun, and be 



EVERGREENS 191 

left until settled spring weather. This is also a good protection 
against dogs. Be sure that the brush is set deep enough in the ground 
to withstand high winds. If small trees are planted and not seedling 
evergreens, transplant these later into nursery rows near a board 
fence or a row of trees that form a windbreak. For a new country 
red cedar or Scotch pine are good, but jack pines and other northern 
grown evergreens grow well if protected. 

Plant Away From Windows. 

To set evergreens opposite large glass windows on the southeast 
and southwest sides of buildings is dangerous in zero climates. The 
writer planted 29 red cedar trees 3^ feet high on the west side of a 
two-story building with large glass windows. All the trees lived and 
made a good growth the first season. The next spring two of those 
trees planted from 8 to 9 feet distance opposite the large windows 
died from top to bottom. The reflection of the sun on the large ex- 
panse of glass was the cause. 

Evergreens in zero climates should be planted from 16 to 20 feet 
from windows, on the southeast and southwest. I have seen groves 
of cedars and Colorado spruce from 8 to 12 feet high on the east side, 
when the foliage on the southeast and southwest was dead and burnt 
by reflection of the bright sun coming in contact with the zero frosted 
panes. 

Evergreens that have been grown in the shade of trees should be 
shaded at first when transplanted ; in fact, make the new abode of the 
tree as much like the old as possible. In thirty-five years' experience 
with evergreens I find those that have been partly shaded summer 
and winter with tall forest trees are brighter and richer colored. The 
extreme cold of winter nights and the bright suns of hot summer days 
fade the foliage and weaken the vigor of the evergreen. A few forest 
trees planted on the southwest from 16 to 20 feet from the evergreens 
and planted in a triangle will partially protect the evergreens. 

Sweep Up the Snow, 

The first snows that fall in the fore part of winter should be swept 
up around the evergreens and tender shrubbery from two to four feet 
deep. Do this with a heavy barn broom and sift the snow all through 
and over the branches when it is soft and loose. By sweeping it in 
several feet deep it will settle very close around the evergreens and 
shrubs. The first snowfall can be kept from melting if banked up deep 
and covered with straw from 4 to 6 inches deep over the snow. The 
bright winter sun will not melt the snows until late in the spring. 
Often in cold climates, where the days are mostly clear, the snows go 
before any spring rains come, and the ground is often frozen so hard 
and deep that the snow water is lost. Sweeping up the first snows 
keeps the hard frost out of the ground around the trees and shrubs, 
and when this snow melts in spring the trees and shrubs get the water 
that sinks into the ground under the mulching. 



192 WHAT J KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Using Tackles. 

Tackles should be used for transplanting large trees. Cut back 
from one-third to one-half on all trees except evergreens. Leave all 
evergreens full top. One of the best ways for trees from 4 to 6 inches 
in diameter is to dig a trench about 2 feet each way from the tree and 
from 3 to 4 feet deep, according to the depth of the roots. Do this 
late in the fall, and be sure to secure a ball of dirt on the roots 4 feet 
across and 4 feet thick. Thoroughly wet this ball of dirt before hard 
freezing comes, so that the dirt will freeze solid to the roots of the 
tree. In digging down slant under the trees, so that the bottom will 
be like the bottom of a spindle-shaped top. In moving trees dug up 
in this way use cable chains. Wrap them around the ball of dirt so 
that they will draw up tight. Take great care not to injure the body 
of the tree by barking it when moving. The main requisites are good 
ropes, pulleys and plenty of help. The holes where the trees are to 
be replanted must be dug before the ground freezes. Move as soon 
as the dirt ball is frozen solid. Fill in and mulch heavily with coarse 
stable litter or straw. This mulching must be quite thick and extend 
out well around the trees. Large transplanted trees need special care 
as to this mulching, especially in dry climates, in order that the old 
forest litter of leaves may be supplied as to its moisture efifect. There 
is no danger of too much mulching. Spade often in May and June. 
For nursery transplanting set all trees from 2 to 3 inches deeper than 
they grow in the nursery. If the soil is sandy draw good dirt to fill in 
around the transplanted objects. 

To Save Split Trees. 

Ornamental or fruit trees that are split by wind storms can often 
be saved by boring a hole through the split branches. The size of the 
hole for small trees is 34 to ^ inch. For large trees a larger size. 
Use bolts with a washer and burr on the bolt. Draw the split branches 
tight together, first filling in with white lead, with a heavy wrench. 
Some trees will require 2 bolts. I have known trees to grow together 
in two or three years so that no one could tell where the bolt was put 
through. Straighten leaning trees by driving a post in the ground 
opposite the leaning side several feet from the tree. The post should 
be driven solid into the ground — leaving about a foot above to fasten 
a strong wire to. Put a piece of old harness tug or trace around the 
tree near the lower limbs. Stretch the wire to the leather. The 
leather ends should not be drawn close together around the tree and 
the wire should not go around the tree. Many a good tree has been 
ruined by putting a wire around the trunk or limbs. Always use a 
stout piece of leather — any good old harness straps — and wind the 
wire two or three times around the post in the ground. In two or 
three years the tree will be straightened. 

Pruning Trees and Hedges. 

The beauty of all trees and hedges depends upon pruning. 
All pruning of ornamental shade trees should be done so as to 
keep the top of the tree to be pruned in a concentrated shape. This 



EVERGREENS 193 

can be easily done by cutting Ijack all straggling branches once each 
year. Too many people cut out the small thrifty limbs or branches 
from the head of the tree. And often by this thoughtless method of 
pruning the tree is more easily destroyed during a wind storm from 
being opened at the head, around the large limbs, giving the strong, 
hard winds easy sway, and they are thus easily twisted ofif. The small 
thrifty limbs in and around the head, where the large limbs are, should 
not be cut out. The old saying is true, "It takes an artist for a good 
trimmer." 

The month of June is the best time to prune ornamental shade 
trees, as the tree will commence to head immediately after being 
pruned. The ends of all limbs cut should be immediately painted if 
the limb is one-quarter or more in size. Prune from the 10th of June 
to the 10th of July, and always in cloudy weather or after sunset in 
the summer time. If pruning is to be done in the fall, October is the 
best time, as at that time the tree is dormant, and all shrubbery that 
has made an unusual growth, should be cut back from Vs to ^ of that 
season's growth. 

Pruning should not be done in winter when the ground is frozen 
hard and the temperature is continually rising and falling. This con- 
dition continues in the northwest for about 6 months, and during this 
period all large ornamental shade trees, as the maple — sugar, rock, 
silver or soft, — birch trees, box elder and all kinds of trees that have 
sap in them freely, should not be pruned. Large losses have come 
from such pruning. 

In pruning one should use only sharp tools and cut close to the 
trunk of the tree pruned, and paint immediately after removing the 
limb, with the best quality of paint, made of the best lead and linseed 
oil. 

Hedges. 
Buckthorn is one of the hardiest hedges known and the best known 
ornamental hedge plant, with the possible exception of the California 
privet, to stand close pruning without injury. When this hedge is 
trimmed the leaves quickly cover the cut and make it appear like a 
smooth and glossy wall of living green. It also bids defiance to the 
coldest frosts of winter, as well as the severest heat of summer. In 
order to get a pretty hedge the plant must be trimmed severely the 
first few years, so as to get numerous strong branches near to the 
ground. The principal thing in growing a hedge is to get a strong 
thick growth at the very bottom. 

The plants are generally set one foot apart in single rows, yet 
when a very thick hedge is desired set them in double rows, each 
row about 10 inches apart and the plants about 18 inches apart in the 
row, setting rows diagonally across from the plants in the other row. 
The plants should be cut back to at least one-half their growth before 
planting. Immediately after planting, begin to cultivate, always keep- 
ing the ground loose and free from weeds. For winter protection 
mulch about six inches deep with coarse stable litter, straw, hay or 
leaves, and about two feet on both sides of the hedge. In the spring 
cultivate the mulching: into the trround. 



194 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

For hedging or windbreak evergreens dig a trench 3 feet deep 
and 2^/2 feet in width. Then fill in the bottom with well rotted man- 
ure to the depth of 18 inches. Tread this down closely and cover 
with a few inches of black dirt. Plant the evergreen some 2 or 3 
inches deeper than in the nursery and fill in around the roots with 
well fined black dirt to within two inches of the top. Put coarse 
stable manure again around the tree, but keep it from the body of the 
tree. Then round up with black dirt again. 

Some years ago I planted 24 beautiful pines at Litchfield, Minne- 
sota. They were planted about the 24th of April, because the pur- 
chaser insisted on that early date, against my advice to wait at least 
a month. In spite of the general care used in transplanting they all 
died. 

Later I planted six more for the same man, planting on the last 
day of May. Five of these lived and flourished. The sixth had very 
little root and died. 

Newly set evergreen hedges should always be spaded with a fork- 
spade, two feet both sides of the hedge, and around the trees, from 4 
to 6 inches deep at least once a month all summer. This improves 
color and hastens growth. Never use a shovel-spade in spading ever- 
greens. It destroys too many roots and leaves the soil in chunks. 

Open foliaged evergreens, when small, can be made to grow thick 
foliage by pinching out with thumb and finger on the center bud 
when it is nicely swelling to open in May. It takes from 2 to 4 years 
for a thick foliage in this way. The top of the tree should not be dis- 
turbed. If the top is broken out it will cause a crook in the tree. New- 
green limbs should not be cut from the bodies of the evergreen tree. 
There are generally three new buds in spring on all of the outer 
branches and it is the center one of these buds which should be 
pinched when about the size of a thimble. 

All litter from yard rakings, fallen leaves, dead twigs, etc., makes 
excellent mulching for hedges. Never prune evergreens in the mid- 
dle of the day when the sun is hot. Dogs are a great detriment to 
evergreen hedges and if one will take time and money to enclose valu- 
able hedges of this sort with chicken wire fence 2 feet high a good 
deal of damage will be prevented. Oak brush or oak saplings, as men- 
tioned before, are also good. 

I would add that if the soil is a light sandy loam I would always 
set nursery evergreens a little deeper than the 2 or 3 inches mentioned 
above. A clay subsoil makes the best home for transplanted ever- 
greens, but inthat case dig the holes 6 feet deep and 6 feet in diam- 
eter, with about 2>'< feet of clay at bottom. A clay basin holds water 
and moisture in drouth, but if the natural soil is clay mix in one- 
quarter sand with it. 

Coal ashes make excellent mulching for hedges, especially for 
those that are not cultivated and are crowded by grass and weeds. 
A good coat of ashes spread four inches from the plants on both sides 
of the hedges and 2 feet in width will insure the hedge from quack 
grass and keep fire away. This mulching should be from six to eight 
inches deep. 



EVERGREENS 195 

Watering Trees. 

It is my firm belief that more plants and trees are killed by over 
than by under watering, unless the season is exceptionally dry. When 
planting a tree or bush fill in around the roots with the best of soil 
within four inches of the surface. Then settle the ground around the 
roots of the tree or bush firmly with water. After that try to conserve 
the moisture in the soil by either cultivation or mulching. The 
mulching should be put about 3 inches under the soil, that it may 
not interfere with cultivation. Remember that it takes considerable 
water to soak into the soil to any depth that will benefit the tree. 
Small amounts, often applied, are more likely to harm than do good. 
The soil becomes hard and baked and evaporation is greater than 
ever. Give the soil a good soaking when you must water and as soon 
as it is dry enough cultivate or mulch the surface so as to hold the 
moisture. The time to apply water to trees and all kinds of shrub- 
bery in hot weather is after sunset. When the sun is shining, water, 
if it does not kill, causes rust and blight. 

Miscellaneous Notes. 

Other evergreens beside the American arbor vitae which make 
good hedge plants for diflferent localities are the Scotch pine, Norway 
pine, hemlock and Norway spruce. 

Among the hedge shrubs the purple barberry, buckthorn, rosa 
rugosa, spiraea, forsythia, osage orange, honey locust and privet may 
be grown with advantage if care is taken to choose only the ones 
adapted to your own climate. 

The basswood or American linden is a vigorous grower, and 
while of pyramid shape when young, becomes at last a large, round- 
headed tree. The value of the blossoms for the honey bee makes this 
tree, apart from its decorative use, specially desired by most farmers. 

Low growing trees should not be planted at the roadside, as in 
low, wet places, the mud Avill not dry up readily after a rain. In win- 
ter, also, they are the cause of drifts in roads. Elms, headed high, 
are excellent for roadside trees ; and for the northwest this is specially 
true, as the rough bark of the elm protects it from sun scald. An elm 
will also bear more bad treatment in transplanting, because it has not 
only a good tap root, but many fibrous roots. 

Cedar makes the easiest grown of all windbreaks. It is dense at 
the bottom and drouth and windproof. The seed (the red berries) 
germinates slowly, but it grows afterwards faster the first few years 
than any other evergreen. 

Mountain ashes are subject to sun scald, having a very tender 
bark. If protected when small by something that will shade the 
stalk they will grow more bushy. They are a very pretty tree and 
are used extensively for ornamental purposes. The two common va- 
rieties are the European and American. 

Black walnut and butternut trees do not stand transplanting 
easily, as they have very few lateral or fibrous roots. But the nuts 
of these trees, planted as soon as they fall, under the shade of some 
such quick growing tree as the basswood or ash, will thrive well. 



196 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT F A R ^I I N G 

Open trenches about four inches deep and cover well, and the nuts 
will sprout the next spring. 

Large willow cuttings, closely set, driven into sod land which is 
inclined to be low and is damp in spring, will usually make good 
windbreaks. Prepare the willow cuttings in the winter, and bury in 
straw or earth to keep them moist and fresh until planting time, al- 
though the best results from planting are had by making the cuttings 
in the fall or early spring. The willow makes a successful windbreak 
or a good woodlot utilized in this way, but it is troubled by one in- 
sect pest which works ravages upon its usefulness. 

The insect is a bark louse, which remains attached to the small 
limbs of the trees, multiplies rapidly and takes the sap from the small 
twigs to that extent that they are liable to die, and as a consequence 
injure or destroy the lower branches, which are so valuable in stop- 
ping the ground sweep of the winds. 

Russian willow is said, by those who have used it for hedge rows, 
not to be troubled by this bark louse nor by worms. This willow 
grows fully as well as the white willow for hedges, has wood about 
as hard as that of soft maples, and a very beautiful glistening foliage. 
Posts from this willow, treated for rot, are being used. 

The golden willow should not be started on sod land, but on land 
that has grown some cultivated crop. If golden willow cuttings are 
cut back to the ground at the end of the first or second year of growth 
they will make a much thicker hedge for a shelter. A good solid wil- 
low hedge makes fine protection for evergreens. 

The Carolina poplar, which is simply a variety of our cottonwood 
tree, is usually grown in its staminate form, and therefore is free from 
the objectionable cottony seed. It is the best poplar we have, but it 
does not grow to advantage on very dry soil. Plant on moist ground, 
like that of a river bank, which was its native home, and you will have 
a grand tree. 

The Tree Borer. 

The European alder and willow borer has been at work on the 
Carolina poplar. Prof. F. L. Washburn, of the Minnesota Experiment 
Station, gives this description of it as a dark "brown beetle, about 
half an inch long, with a long snout. It has a conspicuous white patch 
on the rear part of its back, and some whitish on its sides near the 
head. It makes a hole in the poplar stem or trunk, lays an egg there- 
in, and the larva hatching bores into the bark, and into the solid wood. 

"When trees are young they are easily killed by this pest. When 
only a branch or stem is affected, it may be cut off in June, with the 
contained worm, and burned with the culprit inside. A good prevent- 
ive to young stock in the nursery or elsewhere would be a whitewash 
on the trunks, containing a liberal allowance of Paris green, applied 
two or three times during May and early June. Jarring the trees in 
May and June, in the morning, causing the beetles to drop upon a 
sheet below is also suggested. All farmers planting windbreaks 
should watch out for this pest." 

Wood borers can be destroyed by working with fine wire into 
their holes. As they usually bore through the bark near the base 



EVERGREENS 197 

of the tree, a whitewash made from lime and soft soap will help in 
keeping these pests and others away from their mining work. 

Another good way to keep the borer away from almost any tree, 
especially fruit trees, is by wrapping the trunk with stilT building 
paper, having it extend from a few inches beneath the soil to a foot 
up the trunk. The moth that lays the eggs must then go higher up, 
and the young are exposed to the elements so much that the larvae 
are usually killed. But keep up a thorough searching of the soil every 
spring and fall just the same. 

Tree Stories. 

Newark, N. J., has long been noted for its beautiful shade trees. 
That city started tree planting nearly 250 years ago, as may be seen 
from this paragraph in the old town minute book: 

"Feb. 6, 1676. The town seeing some trees spoiled in the streets 
by barking or otherwise ; the town hath agreed, that no green tree 
within the town as is marked with N, shall be barked or felled, or 
otherwise killed, under the penalty of ten shillings so killed." 

Probably the thrifty settlers of that day were careful as to how 
they injured the village trees after that. When we remember that 
trees are self-sustaining, after they have been well started and prop- 
erly cared for at first, it is stranger still to understand why farmers 
neglect to plant them. 

The following story, for which the writer does not vouch, has a 
good deal of interest in it, because it shows, if true, that nature has 
great recuperative powers if we know how to influence them to action : 

"A contributor to the 'Country Gentleman' tells of an old tree 
having been rejuvenated in a remarkable manner. It was a very an- 
cient walnut, with long, gaunt boughs carrying much deadwood, and 
here and there bearing a few leaves. For several seasons it had been 
struggling in this way to live, but each year manifested signs that its 
life was fast disappearing. Then a wonderful thing occurred. The 
keeper in front of whose house the tree stood, took to slinging the 
body of each deer he killed on to one of the boughs for dressing. The 
following spring this tree put forth an astonishing crop of leaves, and 
in less than three seasons it was making new wood and showing all 
the vigor which had characterized it thirty years before. Its renewed 
youth was entirely attributed to the fertilizing properties of the blood 
with which it had been so liberally dressed." 



CHAPTER XIV 

Xne FloAver Garden 

Soil Preparation. 

ALL flowers should be grown in deep, rich, mellow loam. If the 
soil is clayey and apt to bake, it must be thoroughly fertilized 
with well rotted barnyard manure and a mixture of some sand, 
one-third sand at least. Spade or plow deep, break the soil up 
well and rake the surface very fine. Fresh or unrotted manure is lia- 
ble to burn the roots. Cow manure is the best for flower beds. A 
teaspoonful of ammonia in a gallon of water makes a good fertilizer. 
This is to be applied to the soil once a week and is very good for ver- 
benas and asters. Ashes, liquid manure, and nitrate of soda are very 
good flower fertilizers. 

The Making of the Flower Beds. 

In making a flower bed, see that the ground is well drained ; that 
the subsoil is deep, and the land in a mellow condition, and that it 
is rich. Make the beds always in the fall and each fall give it a mulch 
of rotted manure, which may be spaded under deeply in the spring. 

This method distributes the fertilizer more equably and perma- 
nently through the soil. Plants and seeds in such beds begin to grow 
and germinate at once in the spring. 

Old sod or dead grass make fine fertilizers. Combine the sod 
with one-fourth sand and one-fourth well rotted manure. For some 
soils 4 qts. of salt to the soil of a bed, 10 to 12 ft. in diameter, is of 
value. The salt helps to destroy worms and to retain moisture. 
When salt is used, however, it should be well mixed through the 
beds in the fall, and two bushels of air-slacked lime added in the 
spring. Spade in well and work over often. If your soil is sandy 
naturally, however, omit the sand from the mixture. But the lime 
and soil applied each year will free from insects and cut worms. Make 
the flower beds as broad as possible, so that the roots of the grass 
running in from either side will not meet beneath the flowers and 
rob them of food and moisture. It is well to add a little commercial 
fertilizer each fall and spring. 

Transplanting and Cultivating. 
In out door culture surplus plants should be transplanted. This 
may be done at any time when the plants are quite small. The best 
time is after a soaking rain, in the latter part of the day. Take up 
the plants carefully, pressing the soil about the roots and make the 
hole large enough so that the roots can take their natural position in 
planting. Draw the soil up about the plant and press firmly. Give a 
good sprinkling, and shade from the hot sun a day or two. The soil 



T II E F L O W E R G A R D E N 199 

should be well cultivated once every week. The loosened soil on the 
surface acts as a mulch and saves the moisture. Give the plants 
plenty of room. Good results cannot be had from crowded beds. 

Watering. 

Watering the garden plants should be done with great care. 
Many a flower garden is spoiled by too much watering. It is better 
to save the water in the soil by frequent cultivating with the garden 
rake or hand weeder. But if the soil should become so dry that the 
plants do not thrive, then water the bed. Do not sprinkle, but water 
thoroughly after sundown once or twice a week, applying water to 
the roots from the spout of the watering can. Rake the surface over 
again in the morning when it begins to get dry. 

Seed Sowing. 

Seed should not be sown until settled warm weather. Too 
early sowing is the cause of many failures, and another mistake is in 
covering too deep. Always cover only one or two times the thickness 
of the seeds, but for coarse seed a quarter or one-half inch is not too 
much. 

Mix fine seeds with ten to twenty times their bulk of sand and 
sprinkle them over the seed bed with a pepper box. Then add a light 
covering of fine white sand, which will not crust nor bake in the wind 
and sun like a clay loam. The latter often does not yield to the up- 
ward pressure of the tiny plants. Keep a supply of fine, sharp sand 
on hand. When seed is sown in the summer, it should be put a little 
deeper than in spring, and the soil firmed very thoroughly over it. 

Always press the earth down firmly after sowing all flower 
seeds. A second sowing ought to be made in from two to four weeks 
to secure a succession of bloom. In starting flower seed of any kind, 
only heat and moisture are required until they sprout through the 
ground. Do not water unless very dry, then be sure to cover as above 
directed, to prevent soil drying out and crusting over. A board laid 
on the earth over the seed will also prevent washing out by heavy 
rains. 

In-Door Seed Sowing. 

Take equal parts of fine, clear, gritty sand, and surface earth 
from the woods or soil, cut from beneath turf full of tiny grass roots. 
Take a box and bore some holes in the bottom to secure a good 
drainage. Cover the bottom with pieces of broken pottery or small 
stones before putting in the soil. Press down the soil, smooth it over 
with a piece of lath or flat stick, and saturate with water and wait for 
it to drain off. Make shallow drills with the edge of a ruler about two 
inches apart and sow seed, sifting soil over according to size of seed. 
Cover with glass and place in the sunshine. The temperature of the 
room should not go below 60 degrees at night and should be from 70 
to 75 degrees in the day time. While the seed are germinating the 
soil should never become dry. Spray (not water) carefully only when 
no moisture collects on the under side of the glass. Give fresh air 
daily and before transplanting out doors, harden the plants by putting 
them out of doors on pleasant days in the sunshine. 



200 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

House Plants. 

The best soil for all varieties of house plants is obtained from 
thoroughly rotted prairie sod, heavily grassed, which should be placed 
in a pile, grass side down. About 100 lbs. of slacked lime to each 
load of sod, or two or three quarts of slacked lime to a bushel of sod 
should be well scattered among the sod. A small quantity of wood 
ashes mixed into the rotted sod is excellent for all flowering plants, 
also a little sand mixed into the soil. The sand draws heat, and 
keeps the soil from baking, from over watering, or from going too 
long without water. If you can only get heavy clay soil for your house 
plants, mix in one-third sand. The richest soil should have shallow 
cultivation. This can be done with a common table fork, and once in 
two or three weeks is sufficient. It is also good once in a while to 
add a little new soil. Be sure to watch for insects. All house plants 
should have a vessel of hot water or a wet sponge placed near them. 
The sponge may be hung up so that it will be near the flowering 
plants. 

Nitrate of soda is a fine stimulant for sick plants. Dissolve a 
teaspoonful in one quart of warm water and use twice a week as long 
as needed. For outdoor plants a thin layer of sand over the entire 
root of the plant will help to retain the moisture. 

Nitrate of soda should be used as follows: One handful of soda 
to 50 gals, of water, but only a small grain to one cup of water. Some 
use ammonia. When this is used, put one teaspoonful to 1 gal. of 
water and always apply with a spray. For out-of-door roses, use 
white hellebore mixed with flour equally, and dust on through tiny 
holes made in a common tin can with a nail. This should be done 
while the dew is on, but never when the wind blows. Nicolicide is 
used to kill all kinds of insects. Use from one to two drops in one 
teacup of water. Spraying once will be sufficient. 

All vines, shrubbery and ferns should be planted in their natural 
soils to thrive the best. I planted a wood vine, or fine leaf ivy, in leaf 
mold soil about May first, in the spring of 1908. It made a growth of 
16 feet and 4 inches by October 15, 1908. The wood vine plant was 
nearly one year old when planted, and was cut back to four inches in 
length. There should be placed about one wheelbarrowful of leaf 
mold soil, brought from the woods, around each vine or shrub. 

Alphabetical List of Varieties. 

Ageratum. Hardy annual. Start in-doors or in cold frame, if de- 
sired, for early blooming in March, but for summer and fall bloom 
the seed may be sown in well prepared beds in the open about May 
first. 

Althaea Rosea or Hollyhock. Plant seed as early in the spring 
as possible, and transplant or thin to one foot apart. Time of ger- 
mination, 10 days. 

Alyssum. This is used a great deal for borders and rock work. 
The seed should be sown thickly so as to form masses. For winter 
bloom sow late in August, but for spring bloom the seed should be 



THEFLOWERGARDEN 201 

sown in the open early in the spring, as it will stand considerable 
frost. While white is the most common and popular color, there are 
yellow varieties of alyssum also. When bloom fails cut back the 
plant and it will bloom again. 

The anemone, meaning wind flower, is a genus composed of 
about 85 species, among which are some very handsome garden plants. 
They are perennials and natives of the north temperate zone. They 
will do well in any good garden soil, but a well drained, rich, sandy 
loam is best. Some of the tuberous species are best adapted for hardy 
borders, and if used for winter blooming will require about the same 
care that should be given the hyacinth. For out door planting, Sep- 
tember to December and February and March are good times. 

Aster, Chinese. One of the most popular annuals for fall blooming. 
It is a native of China and was introduced into Europe about 1731 
by a Jesuit missionary to China. These were all the single flower 
type, but soon the double flower was produced, as were also other 
variations in form and color. 

Culture. Secure good seed. Have the soil well manured the pre- 
ceding season. 

A mulch of tobacco stems is said by some growers to be good if 
applied at time of bloom, as it keeps down weeds and kills the root 
aphis. 

To have a succession of blooms sow some in the house or in cold 
frames in March or April, and in May sow in the ground in the open 
in a specially prepared seed bed. Sow about a quarter of an inch deep 
and cover with burlap or old carpet, water through the covering, and 
keep the soil moist. When an inch high transplant to about four 
inches apart, and when four inches high transplant again to twelve 
inches apart or more for the branching kinds. In this way much finer 
plants are obtained. If troubled with the black aster bugs look for 
them three times a day during the flowering season and knock them 
into a pan and destroy them. As different varieties come to maturity 
at varying times one may have a long period of aster blooming. 

Bachelor Buttons, Centaurea Cyanus. Sow in the open ground 
as soon as danger of frost is past, and transplant to one foot apart. 

Balsam. Water with manure water occasionally. These plants 
need plenty of sun and room to insure nice double flowers. 

Balsam, Impatiens Balsamina. This annual was long ago intro- 
duced from India, and is now widely cultivated for its showy blos- 
soms. Since then it has varied greatly in size, color and form. 

The culture of the balsam is not difficult. The seeds are large 
and germinate readily, but the plants are sensitive to frost and should 
be started in thumb pots until all danger of frost is past. The soil 
should be a rich, sandy loam, and the plants ought to be set about 
two feet apart each way. 

Begonia. Very popular as a house plant. The first begonia was 
brought to England in 1777. 350 species are now known, while per- 
haps 150 of these are of use to florists. The development of this plant 



202 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

has been very rapid and the colors both of flowers and leaves are very 
gorgeous. 

They are divided into four groups : 

1. Winter flowering. Fibrous rooted. 

2. Semi-tuberous. 

3. Summer flowering. Tuberous rooted. 

4. Rex. 

Sow from January to March in a good box or flower pot in good 
soil. Cover with glass and set in a dark place, not too warm, until 
seed begins to germinate, then bring to the light gradually, but do not 
give full sunlight except in early morning or late in afternoon. Keep 
soil moist, but not wet. When second or third leaf appears trans- 
plant, etc. Begonias dislike close atmosphere and hot sunshine in 
their earlier days. They may be headed out by the middle of June. 

While during the summer the sun may hurt begonias, during the 
winter and spring they can not get enough of it. 

The soil must consist of good loam, well rotted manure, leaf 
mould and sand mixed to a good consistency. They are not very liable 
to insect attacks, but sometimes are troubled by fungous diseases. 

Candytuft. Sow in fall or early spring. Any good soil is suit- 
able ; thin out to four or five inches apart. It takes about 16 days to 
germinate. 

Candytuft, Iberis. These annuals are grown in masses in the 
garden and by florists for cut flowers. They can do well in any rich 
garden soil with plenty of light and air. 

It got its name candytuft because it was brought from Candia 
and its flowers appear in tufts. 

Columbine. Hardy perennial in the northern hemisphere. There 
are about 30 species, and are among the most beautiful of hardy plants. 
They do best in a light, sandy soil, well drained and in a sheltered 
location where they can be in the sun. Propagation is best done 
with seeds. 

Canterbury Bells, Campanula Medium. Sow in fall or in May in 
light, rich soil, and thin out to two feet apart. They bloom the sec- 
ond year. 

Carnation. Sow in-doors (See "In-door Sowing") or in the open 
ground in April or May. A sunny location with some sand in the 
soil is the best. In most regions, if well mulched with strawy manure, 
the plants will live out over winter. 

Chrysanthemum. Sow in boxes in spring and make several trans- 
plantings, as they advance in growth. In September lift into large 
pots. Water well and keep in a sheltered place. 

Columbine, Aquilegia. Sow the seed in the open in spring where 
the plants are to grow, and thin the young seedlings to about a foot 
apart. The columbine is a hardy perennial, with many horticultural 
varieties, and is a desirable border plant. Few hardy perennials are 
so easily grown from seed. 



THEFLOWERGARDEN 203 

Delphiniums, Larkspurs. About 60 species of beautiful, hardy 
plants. Native of north temperate zone. Annual and perennial. 

They do best in rich garden soil that is well and deeply prepared. 
The perennials are propagated : 

1. By root division in fall or spring. 

2. By cuttings. 

3. By seeds started in greenhouse in March. 

, The young seedlings must have plenty of room and may be set 
in the garden in June. These will flower in autumn. Seeds started in 
late spring or summer flower the following summer. 

The annuals are propagated from seed, which should be sown in 
the fall for early spring flowers. 

Daisy (Bellis Perennis). Treat same as Pansies. Set eight 
inches apart. 

Dahlia. To insure bloom the first season, sow in February in- 
doors or in cold frame. If sown out of doors in May it will come into 
full bloom late. Prune ofif some of the branches, letting only two or 
three grow. 

Evening Primrose. The evening primrose is a choice, free-bloom- 
ing annual, with widely open flowers of satiny texture, with delicate 
colors. The seed should be sown in an open border or in a cold frame 
in spring. If the latter, the seedlings should be transplanted to stand 
about a foot apart in rather thin or sandy soil. The blooming season 
is from early spring until frost. 

Eschscholtzia, California Poppy. Sow where plants are to stay 
and thin out to six inches apart. They do not stand transplanting 
well. Germination, 14 days. 

Feverfew. May be sown in-doors or out. Observe direction for 
fine seeds, although in-door sowing proves the best. 

Forget-Me-Not. Sow in early spring, but best to sow in cold 
frame in July or August, transplant to a shady position and keep well 
watered during dry weather. Will sometimes bloom the first season. 

Four O'clock. Will grow in any common garden soil from seed 
sown in the open ground. Sow in May. Set two feet apart. 

Fuchsia. After plants are started give rich soil and water wnth 
weak manure water occasionally. Do not need high temperature, but 
plenty of light and air. 

Geranium. See "In-door Sowing." Place in the dark until seeds 
germinate, then admit light. 

Gladiolus. Sow in drills about half inch deep in well worked soil, 
cover with hay or grass clippings. When well up remove the cover- 
ing and keep soil loosened about the plants all summer. Take up the 
tiny bulbs after the first frost, and set out the following May ; many 
will bloom the second year. 

The culture of gladioli is very easy. Conditions suitable for po- 
tatoes prove very good for them. Succeed best in moist, sandy loam. 
Propagated in three ways : 

1. Division of bulb. 

2. By seed. 

3. By small corms growing at the base of parent bulb. 



204 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Heliotrope. Do not sow with other seeds, as heliotrope needs a 
higher temperature, with rich soil. Sow in a flower pot, cover and 
keep in a temperature of about 70 degrees. Set in the ground in 

May. 

Hollyhock. If planted in the fall or started in the house early 
they will bloom the first season. Or sow out doors in April, trans- 
plant when they have 3 or 4 leaves. Do best in deep, rich, well 
drained soil. 

Iris. Sow after settled warm weather ; will grow anywhere, but 
does best in moist situation. 

Marigold. Sow in early spring 18 inches apart. 

Morning Glory. Sow early, thin to 8 inches. Sow each seed 
singly in small pots in April and transplant out doors after the frosts 
are over. Sow in good ground in sunny situation. 

Mignonette. Cover a little deeper than general rule, and firm the 
ground down well; thin to 6 inches apart for nice fall plants, make 
second sowing last of June. 

Nasturtium. After settled warm weather sow in open ground, 
firming the soil well over the seeds. A sunny location is the best. If 
soil is too rich they run to vines. Set one foot apart. It takes from 
12 to 16 days for germination. Very common and easy of culture. 
The watercress is a member of the genus, of which there are 20 widely 
scattered species. 

It is sometimes used as a food. 

It is occasionally attacked by a green worm with biting mouth 
piece. To stop its ravages use hellebore or flour and paris green. Fre- 
quent applications may be necessary, as the leaves are very slippery. 

Peonies are plants of the hardy perennial herbs so much grown 
and liked. They are natives of Europe and Asia. They are not usu- 
ally subject to insects or fungous diseases. At present there are about 
1,000 double varieties. In 1855 there were only 24 double varieties. 
Peonies do best in rich, deep, moist loam and need a large quantity of 
manure, worked well into the soil. Also they need a great deal of 
water. 

Peonies are propagated : 

1. By division of roots. This is easiest and most satisfactory. 
May be lifted and divided from middle of August until stalks appear 
in the spring. Early fall is best. There may be as many divisions 
as there are eyes. 

2. Grafting. 

3. Seeds. 

If seed can be sown in fall, shortly after maturity, it will come 
up the next spring; otherwise it will lie in the ground from one to two 
years, hence sow where soil will not be disturbed and wait. 

Pansy. The pansy requires a very rich soil and a partially 
shaded location. Spade the ground in the fall, and work in rotted cow 
manure. Give plenty of water, and to get best results keep the sur- 
face soil loose. Sometimes a mulching of grass clippings can be used. 
In early spring make drills one-half inch deep and 8 inches apart, and 



T H E F L O W E R G A R D E N 205 

sow the seed thinly, but cover very lightly. After the plants have 
several leaves transplant to about 8 inches apart. Start the seed 
in-doors in February or March, according to latitude, though seed 
sown in July will give bloom late in autumn. Cover with leaves in 
winter. 

Petunia. Sow common petunia out of doors. Sift a little sand 
over the seed as soon as it germinates, keeping on the slats or glass a 
day or two longer. It takes about 14 days to germinate. 

Phlox. Sow in ground in late fall or early spring. Germinates 
from 6 to 20 days. Perennial. Few annual plants are more easily 
grown from seed, give such quick return of bloom or ofifer such a 
variety to choose from as do the phloxes. In transplanting set the 
taller kinds about a foot apart. The average height of the plant is 
about a foot. 

Poppy. Sow in fall or early spring where plants are to stand, and 
thin to about 8 inches. Cover with a sprinkling of earth and press 
down with the hand. Best to sow these in September. 

Snap Dragon. Sow late or start in-doors or in cold frame. When 
germinating give barely enough water to keep soil moist. 

Sunflower. The seed should be planted in the open garden about 
the same time that corn is planted, and the plants thinned to stand 
from 2 to 4 feet apart, according as the plant is dwarf or tall growing. 
There are different varieties, which range from 2 to 10 feet in height, 
with from one to many flowers. 

Sweet Peas. Sweet peas require a soil deeply tilled and well sup- 
plied with plant food. A good method is to open a trench in the fall 
about two feet wide and two feet deep in rich garden loam. 

Fill this trench with an equal mixture of well rotted manure and 
good soil mixed either with one-quarter hardwood ashes or air- 
slacked lime. 

All should be thoroughly mixed before placing in the trench. 

Plant the pea seed one and one-half inches deep, and quite thick, 
as follows : Press the peas down with the hand before putting on the 
surface soil oi lYz inches in thickness. 

Do not press the top soil very hard. As soon as the peas are an 
inch high cultivate them every other day until they commence to 
bloom. 

Use water sparingly. 

After applying water cultivate as soon as the water has settled 
into the soil, for if left uncultivated the soil will bake and become 
hard. 

Smilax. Soak seeds in warm water 12 hours and sow in-doors in 
February or March. Keep in warm, moist place. 

Sweet William. Sow in spring or fall in the ground and thin to 
one foot. New plants should be raised every few years from seed, as 
the plants degenerate. 

Verbena. May be sown out doors or in-doors in February or 
March. Keep seedlings in cool, sunny place, not too warm, and when 
weather becomes warm put in a sheltered situation out of doors to 



206 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

harden before setting into the ground. Don't do as well on clayey 
soil ; light, rich, tufty soil best. 

Violet. Pour hot (almost boiling) water on the seeds and let 
stand four or five hours ; sow in May. Germination from 2 to 6 
months. 

Zinnia. Sow early and transplant or thin to 6 inches apart. As 
the first blossoms appear, pull up plants with single flowers and trans- 
plant others to 8 inches apart. Strong, rich soils suit the zinnia, and 
during the month of August they are at their best. The plants can 
be used for groups, beds, borders, garden lines, and summer hedges. 
Their average height is 1^/2 feet. The zinnia is easily grown. 

Damping Off is the rotting oflf of cuttings or young plants near 
the surface of the soil. It is the work of fungi ; but these fungi are 
injurious because they find conditions congenial to their rapid growth. 
Prevention is worth more than cure. See that the soil is wet clear 
through. Keep it as dry as possible on the surface. Avoid soggy 
soils. On peaty soils, sprinkle sand or coal ashes to keep the top dry, 
give the plants free circulation of air and abundance of room. If 
damping off threatens, transplant. 

Boston Fern. — Perhaps the most popular of ornamental foliage 
plants is the Boston fern, better known as the sword fern. This 
plant is too well known to need description. When well grown it is 
a most beautiful plant, but as ordinarily grown it fails to do itself 
justice because conditions are against it. It is one of the easiest of 
all plants to raise, if its requirements are understood and met. It 
must have a light, spongy soil in order to do the best, and be given 
plenty of root room. 

A year old plant ought to have, at least, a 12 or 14-inch pot to 
accommodate properly its many roots. A good soil for it is made 
by mixing leaf mold with thoroughly rotted grass sods. The grass 
sods should be rotted a year before use. Prairie sod is the best. Mix 
one barrel of air-slacked lime to one large wagon load of sods when 
piling them to rot. When thoroughly rotted, mix one-third rotted 
leaf mold from the woods where no grass or weeds grow. This mix- 
ture of soils is excellent for almost every kind of plants and flowers. 
In such a soil any fern will grow well, provided other conditions are 
favorable. 

"Hard" and "Soft" Wood Cuttings. 

Cuttings are of two kinds, viz., "hardwood" and "softwood." 
Hardwood cuttings are more difficult to root than the "softwooded." 
A softwood cutting will "callus" or heal and form roots, no matter 
where the cut may be. 

The azalea and abutilon are hardwood cuttings ; the geranium and 
coleus are types of the softwood cutting. Hardwooded plants have 
a woody stem, a pithy center (in a young state) and a well-defined 
bark ; a hardwood cutting will bend right over without snapping or 
breaking, but a softwood cutting does not show these characteristics 
and will snap clean through if bent to a right angle. A hardwood cut- 
ting should always be cut close to a leaf joint, the wood at this point 



T H E F L O W E R G A R D E N 207 

being firmer and less pithy than at any other, and it roots most readily 
when taken off the old plant in a young and growing condition. Al- 
ways use a sharp knife, and have a heel (or very small part of the 
older stem) attached to the cutting. 

Aside from great financial saving that results from propagating 
plants at horrje instead of buying them each year, the pleasures of 
gardening are greatly increased by this practice. Where we have had 
one or two of a kind we can have forty or fifty at no greater expense. 

The early care of the cuttings at the critical time of their exist- 
ence must not be neglected. In every household there is some corner 
where we can save over some of our favorites of last summer from the 
ravages of Jack Frost. 

Cutting s 

The ideal cutting should be about three inches long, short jointed 
and firm. Two or three fully developed leaves should be left. The 
others — and also the bracts and flower buds — should be broken oflf 
close to the stem. When carelessly cut off the portion of the leaf 
stalk left behind usually decays, and many of the failures and much 
of the "damping off" can be traced to this. "Damping off" is a rot 
that kills the young plants before they are properly rooted. Have 
your knife sharp and do not squeeze it through, nor yet make a long, 
diagonal cut, as if whittling a stick. Hold the portion that is to be a 
cutting with the thumb and forefinger of the left hand, place against it 
the thumb of the right hand (which holds the knife) and then draw 
the blade through the stem. Commence with the base of the blade 
and draw toward the point. Do not let the edge of the blade strike the 
middle of your thumb. This disfigures your thumb and bruises the 
cutting, as it is squeezed between the blade and the thumb. When 
the thumb is merely used to steady the cutting and the blade drawn 
through, so as to come out at the side of the thumb, the disfiguring 
and bruising are avoided. Geraniums may root readily with less care, 
but the principle of making a cutting holds good in other things, and 
the geranium is a good steady plant for the amateur to begin on as 
practice. 

If it is desired to have a large quantity of geraniums the cuttings 
must be put into boxes or flats, which should be two and one-half or 
three inches deep, and any length and width that may be desired, so 
long as they can be conveniently handled. They must have holes in 
the bottom for drainage, just as is done for window boxes. Cover the 
bottom with a thin layer of leaf soil or light turf, and on top of this 
about two inches of clean sand. 

Striking the Cutting. 

Sand is the best medium for use in propagating — the cleaner the 
better. A cutting, having no roots, if placed in material containing 
decaying organic matter is liable to be attacked by disease. 

Place the cuttings in the sand about one and one-half inches deep 
and two inches apart each way, and make the sand quite firm around 
each one. After the box is full soak thoroughly with water and place 
in the sash bed or window. 



208 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Shade with a newspaper for a day or two, and in from three weeks 
to a month your cuttings will have roots and require stronger nourish- 
ments. One good soaking is usually sufificient watering until the roots 
appear. But give a light spraying on bright days to prevent undue 
evaporation. This keeps the leaves fresh. 

As soon as well rooted the cuttings should be potted up in small 
pots or boxed over again in fairly fertile but light soil. Water care- 
fully until well established, and never allow the young plant to 
flower until it has an abundance of roots. 

Other plants which can be treated in the same way are : Helio- 
trope, ageratum, begonia, alyssum, cuphea, fuchsia, alternanthera, 
salvia, abutilon, hibiscus. 

The coleus wants a closer, more humid atmosphere, and if pos- 
sible, more heat. This can be secured by covering with a bell glass, 
or the flats may be surrounded and covered with panes of glass, thus 
forming a complete case. A coleus will root in from seven to ten days 
in a dwelling house, but if the cuttings once get thoroughly wilted 
they will never recover. 

If only a few plants are needed, two and one-half or three pots 
can be used instead of flats. Use leaf mold and sand, the same as in 
the window boxes, and insert the cuttings so as just to touch one 
another around the edge of each pot, and the same treatment as de- 
scribed above holds good in every other respect. 

Ferns of the Boston type can be readily increased at any time by 
breaking ofif some of the small plants (with roots intact) that grow 
around the edges of the large pieces. Pot them up in any size pot that 
is sufficiently large to contain these roots, but never "over-pot" them 
(over-potting is putting a small plant in a big pot). They form roots 
much more quickly in a small pot. and they can be repotted often as 
they require it. Any plant needs to be repotted into a bigger size as 
soon as its present pot gets full of roots, and no sooner. Growth is 
much quicker, too, if only a small shift is given each time. It is best 
to use a pot about one size larger, or say, from a three-inch to a five- 
inch, from a five-inch to a seven-inch oot. and so on. 

Rose Culture. 

Roses, among the most beautiful of flowers, are the easiest to 
raise to perfection. They only require thorough cultivation, good 
soil, and an abundance of well rotted manure. A clay loam is the 
best for roses, but a sandy soil, well prepared by a layer of thoroughly 
broken up clay at the bottom and heavily manured with rotted man- 
ure, well mixed in, with a thick covering of black earth, will make a 
good soil for rose growing. Such a soil is best prepared by thoroughly 
plowing or spading the dressing, according as you plan for rose grow- 
ing on a large or small scale. Roses also need a sunshiny spot and a 
free circulation of air. Don't choose a bed under trees or in the close 
shade of many buildings. They may mildew from that cause and also 
from poor drainage, or from prolonged wet weather. 

Cultivation is very important, and must begin immediately within 
twenty-four hours. Mulch heavily with rotted manure and spade it 



T n E F L O W E R G A R D E N 209 

into the soil with a fork-spade. Keep the soil loose and free from 
weeds. This surface cultivation is needed at least once a week, and 
if the season is very dry, even twice a week. If you have a number 
of rose bushes try to save all the moisture you give the roses when 
watering by digging little trenches between the bushes, which will 
carry surplus water where you want it to be and not waste it on the 
soil around. Roses need a great deal of moisture, but they must not 
stand in it. A wet blanket at their feet is death to roses. When you 
water do it in abundance. Then give them a rest from watering for 
a time. Frequent cultivation will keep the moisture in the soil by 
keeping it from baking and making it loose and fine. One rose 
grower recommends mulching with lawn grass clippings about the 
first of July. On a farm, coarse stable litter or hay would serve 
equally well, taking care to keep it away from the stem. 

Pruning Roses. 

Rambler roses may be planted in the fall. In some climates these 
need no protection if they are strong plants when set out and are 
carefully planted. If planted along a fence or wall, set them from 
eight to ten feet apart. As these roses bear blooms from wood of new 
growth each year, growing from canes of the season before, it is very 
necessary to prune them thoroughly every spring, so that the old 
wood remaining on will not take vigor that should go to new shoots 
each year. As one nurseryman puts it: 

"The greater the growth of new shoots this season the more buds 
there will be produced, and the more buds there are produced the 
greater will be the number of flower-producing shoots next season. 
After the plants have been pruned, spade a quantity of rotted manure 
into the soil about the base of the plants, to induce a strong growth of 
new wood during the remainder of the growing season. The flowers 
will be borne next season on the wood sent out from the now dormant 
buds. The buds on the wood arising from wood that is two or more 
years old are invariably weak and when there are strong young shoots 
coming up from below, the old wood ought to be cut away and the 
young shoots allowed to take their place." 

An amateur in rose growing, however, would do best by consult- 
ing some experienced rose grower before experimenting much with 
any kind of roses as to pruning. Cut out all old or dead branches, and 
some of the top should be cut back early each spring. Opinions as 
to how far this should be done vary. In general about half of the 
previous season's growth should be cut away. If your roses are from 
budded roses, cut root sprouts or suckers way back into the soil, so 
that they will not take life from top growth. 

Winter Protection. 

The time at which roses should be given winter protection varies 
so much as to climate that no exact date can be named. In freezing 
latitudes all roses are benefited by some protection, even the so-called 
hardy ones. In some mild localities tender roses will need only a 
mound of earth covered with long manure and reaching up above the 



210 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

lower branches. The top will be winter-killed, but as this is pruned 
in the spring it will not injure the plant. There will be enough canes 
left for the next summer's blossoms. 

In severe climates, though, much more thorough means must be 
used to keep roses in good condition through 20 degrees below zero 
blizzards. I give several methods, used by different rose growers 
with success. For number one, put from 6 to 8 inches of dry leaves 
or straw on the ground, after breaking up the soil around the bushes 
so that the canes can be bent down as far as possible. This layer 
of leaves not only keeps the canes from cracking when bent down, but 
also insures a dry bed for the winter, with no ice to settle around the 
roots of the plant. If there are several bushes together, mulch the 
whole plot heavily with well rotted manure before laying down. Then 
use the leaves as above. 

If possible, arrange the bent canes so that they slant up on a 
slight incline. After they are well laid and fastened down with pegs, 
cover with leaves or straw, followed by a layer of sods placed upside 
down, or else by tar paper. Over this put coarse manure and a top 
layer of sand. Poisoned corn meal sprinkled among the canes or 
bushes will kill mice. Do not uncover too early in the spring. This 
covering can be taken off in layers, beginning on the north side of the 
rose bed. Take about ten days for the process of uncovering, remov- 
ing about one-third at a time, and leaving the mulching to be 
spaded in. 

Another method of winter protection for roses, where it is not 
convenient to lay them down on the ground, may be followed. Wrap 
a thick coat of long rye straw around them with binding twine. Then 
wind with burlap or an old grain sack from one to six inches of thick- 
ness. But this method is not advised for a cold climate, nor for ten- 
der varieties of roses. 

For a climate where the winters are cold, yet there is little snow 
on the ground, the most hardy varieties are the Scotch pink, Madame 
Plantier, white, which is a generous bloomer, the moss pink, the cin- 
namon rose and Harrison's yellow. Many rose growers claim that 
these need no protection beyond that given to any hardy shrub ; but 
by way of extra precaution it can do no harm to put a barrel or box 
around these, which can be filled with leaves, fine straw or hay. A 
banana crate makes also a good covering, filled in the same way, and 
fastened down by slats to keep it from being blown over by winds. 
Such coverin!?;s for tenderer roses can be banked on the outside with 
stable manure and litter, which should not be removed before May 1. 
The rest of the protection about May 15. Imported roses can be 
safely wintered by this method. 

If a permanent protection is desired, prepare several twelve-inch 
lengths of one by two-inch boards by sharpening one end enough to 
drive them in the ground. Bore half inch holes in these two inches 
from the top end. Through these, after putting them in the ground 
on each side of the rose bush, after laying down the canes, insert half 
inch strips of light wood. This will leave the canes above the ground 
well and prevent breaking. The pegs can be used each year. 



TH E FLO W E R G A RD E N 211 

Rose Hedge. 

For a rose hedge dig a trench about 3 feet deep and 4 feet wide. 
Fill in to about 18 inches with thick grass sods, grass side down, and 
above this put 8 or 10 inches of good soil, mixed with well rotted 
manure. Set the plants then and fill up to the top with black soil and 
sand on the top. For hedges, either one color or a variety of species 
can be used. This last method insures flowers for a longer time. Set 
the bushes from 16 to 18 inches apart in the row and incline each row 
up slightly. 

An excellent way to get liquid manure for the rose garden is to 
fill a barrel or box with manure. This receptacle should have a few 
holes bored in the bottom and be set up slanting so that the leach 
from it will run into a trough or pail. Give this plenty of water and 
wet the soil around the roses once a week Avith the leach from it. 
Your roses will soon show its value, in size, color and perfume. 

If you find you have roses planted in the wrong location, the only 
thing to do is to transplant to a sunny, bright place, away from tree 
growths, which will be likely to take up the soil values. 

When To Plant. 

The best time for planting is in the early spring. If you are get- 
ting your roses from a nursery do not open up the plants until the 
ground is ready, but wrap and store them in the cellar after sprinkling 
well. Cut back the plants to six-inch canes and set them in the pre- 
pared holes, filling in firmly around the well spread out roots and 
watering abundantly as you do this. Be sure to fill thoroughly, and 
press down hard, as firming the earth well is one great secret of any 
planting. Don't tread the soil. Where roses are on their own roots 
set a couple of inches deeper than when in the nursery. If the plants 
are budded, set several inches deeper, so that the bud will be about 
three inches below the surface. As there are many fine varieties of 
roses that are too weak to grow on their own roots with success, it 
is always worth while to try the grafted kind, bedded on hardy stock. 

Growing Rose Cuttings. 

Roses on their own roots can be grown by any amateur gardener 
by taking cuttings in the fall, about 8 to 10 inches long, and keeping 
them over winter in moist sand. In the spring plant out in soil pre- 
pared as above, and transplant the second year to their permanent 
home. There are so many kinds of such roses to be had that the 
amateur rose gardener can experiment with little expense in this way, 
getting cuttings from friends or from nurseries, where such cuttings 
can be had cheaply. There is, of course, more pleasure from your own 
results of this kind, if your labors are at all successful, than there is 
from nursery stock, though the latter can be had very cheaply. 

If you want to get a few fall flowers from your outdoor rose 
plants, try pruning them. As son as they are through blooming, cut 
back this season's growth to a very few bud stubs — a half dozen is 
enough. The shoots that will develop from this pruning will bear 
blossoms in the fall, wherever early frosts are not likely. Judicious 



212 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

pruning all the season will not harm. It can be done while picking 
the blossoms. 

Planting Climbers. 

The president of the Minnesota State Rose Society gives much 
valuable information as to planting climbers in the following direc- 
tions: 

"Dig a hole 2 feet square by 3 feet deep. Fill in partly with stones 
or brick in the bottom for drainage. Fill in the hole with rich earth 
mixed with well rotted manure and a small quantity of bone meal. 

"Have the manure well rotted, or if fresh, put below the roots so 
as not to burn them. Plant these climbers in April or first part of 
May to become well established before fall, planting about a foot 
away from a brick wall, for the brick absorbs a great deal of moisture. 
A stone wall would be cold. Climbers can be planted in standing posi- 
tion with the roots well away, if planted near walls. I shall speak 
here of the winter protection necessary for climbing roses. 

"Draw the soil up about the main stem, about 4 inches high, place 
straw on the ground, making a warm bed for the vine to lie upon ; take 
the rose from the trellis (and by the way, do not use poultry wire for 
roses, as they push through the wire and are hard to take down in the 
fall) ; draw the branches together, lay them down on the straw, cover 
them carefully with straw about a foot deep, finally covering all with 
tar paper to keep out water. 

"Rugosa roses are hardy Japanese roses, making a dense growth, 
foliage rough of a dark, glossy green. They bloom during the sum- 
mer, the blooms followed by rich orange red seed-pods, which are 
most ornamental ; but if the blooms are allowed to mature, the season 
of bloom is checked. 

"Climbing roses and the Rugosas must not be placed in the rose 
bed proper. The Wichraina and its hybrid Dorothy Perkins, are 
splendid for banks and trellis, magnificent as pillar roses and on 
arches. The Wichuraniana has star-like white blossoms, with a 
delightful fragrance ; its foliage is its chief beauty, with leaves about 
the size of the leaves of the smilax. 

"The Dorothy Perkins is a beautiful shell pink, fragrant and full, 
blooming in clusters, late in June. The growth is exceedingly strong, 
foliage glossy green, retaining this appearance all summer. I cannot 
say too much in praise of this rose." 

Tea-Roses. 

The hybrid tea-rose is hard to raise in the north, but it can be 
successfully grown if much protection is given. 

To be most effective the plants should be in masses of from 20 to 
100 planted together, all of one kind in a bed. They should be about 
18 inches apart, making about 12 plants in a bed 6 feet in diameter 
and 2)7 plants in a bed 10 feet in diameter. The hybrid tea and poly- 
antha roses should be planted in the spring in the north and the hybrid 
perpetuals in either spring or fall. Each spring the plants should be 
pruned, the dead wood being cut back and the remaining shoots cut 



THE FLOWER GARDEN 213 

back four or six eyes. When planting", cut back the shoots to two or 
three eyes. 

Among the best of the tea roses and hybrid tea roses are the 
Kaiserin Augusta Victoria (very tender), white; La France, pink; 
Killarney. flesh tint ; Helen Gould, cherry red ; Perle des Jardins and 
Betty, yellow. Pink Manian Cochet and White Maman Cochet are 
a beautiful variety, remaining in good condition long after cutting. 
All tea roses are excellent as giving freely of cuttings for the house 
during the summer. Most tea roses are best cut when about three- 
quarters open. 

The following list of roses for a northern climate is taken from 
a valuable article on rose growing, presented by J. M. Underwood, of 
Lake City, Minnesota, at a meeting of the State Horticultural Society. 
This list has been chosen because it comes from a practical gardener 
accustomed to a northern cjimate and is therefore desirable for other 
localities, as well as reliable. 

Hardy Roses: Cinnamon, Old Blush, Wild Roses, Scotch Roses. 

June Roses : Magna Charta, Madame Plantier, Harrison's Yel- 
low, Persian Yellow. 

Rugosa Roses : Alba, Rubra and Madam G. Bruant. 

Moss Roses: Scarlet, Crested, Princess Adelaide, Countess de 
Murinais. 

Climbing Roses: Prairie Queen, Crimson Rambler, Baltimore 
Belle, Gem of the Prairie, Seven Sisters, Dorothy Perkins. 

Hybrid Perpetual : Jacqueminot, Paul Neyron, Margaret Dixon, 
Alfred Colomb. Ulrich Brunner, Mrs. John Laing, Marchioness of 
Londonderry, Anne de Diesbach, Frau Karl Druschki, Mabel Morri- 
son. 

Rose Pests. 

Roses are very subject to various pests. The best way to keep 
them away is to keep the plants healthy by manuring and cultivation. 
If the thrip lice or fly appears, syringe the plants daily with a solution 
of tobacco stems; 1 lb. of stems to 5 gals, of water; or. a solution of 
whale oil soap, 1 lb. of soap to 8 gals, of water, until the insects are 
conquered. The rose bugs, which work at the flowers, must be picked 
oflf. The presence of the rose caterpillar can be detected by its glueing 
two or more leaves together to form a shelter. Such leaves should be 
promptly pressed together with thumb and finger. Insects which eat 
the leaves can be destroyed by a mixture of white hellebore and flour, 
half and half. Sprinkle when the foliage is damp. 

Scale will attack stems and twigs. For this, a very weak kero- 
sene emulsion applied early in the season may save from any further 
attack during the summer. Rose lice — tiny, bright green insects — 
sometimes make their appearance in a twenty-four hours, in great 
numbers. Kerosene emulsion, or whale oil soap, sprayed on so that 
it will get on the under side of the leaves, are either of them good 
remedies. 

Rose bugs and beetles can be killed by poisoning the flowers and 
leaves with Bordeaux mixture and arsenate of lead. Make a thick 



214 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

lather of common kitchen soap and drop the lather with the hand on 
all the affected plants, till they are one mass of soap suds. If the 
leaves or roses mildew or rust, apply Bordeaux mixture. 

Rose-Jar. 

An old and tried New York recipe for a rose jar is this: Gather 
the petals every morning, and after the dew is dried, place the petals 
in a large glass jar, sprinkling salt over half-inch layers of the flowers. 
Add to these each morning until you have enough, letting them stand 
in the jar for ten days after the last are put in, stirring the whole every 
morning. Have one ounce each of cloves and allspice, coarsely 
ground, and as much stick cinnamon, broken and shredded fine. 
Transfer the flowers to another jar and scatter the spices mixed to- 
gether in layers. Cover the jar tightly and let it stand in a dark place 
for three weeks. Have ready one-quarter ounce of mace and one-half 
ounce of allspice and cloves, all coarsely ground — or pounded in a 
mortar — half of a grated nutmeg, one-half ounce of cinnamon, broken 
in bits, one ounce of powdered orris root and one-fourth pound of 
dried lavender leaves. Mix these together in a bowl and proceed to 
fill the rose jar with alternate layers of the "stock" and the mixture 
of spices. A few drops of several essential oils — rose, geranium, bit- 
ter almond and orange flower are good — should be dropped upon the 
layers as you progress. Over the whole pour one ounce of some 
favorite toilet water. This recipe is sufficient to fill two quart jars or 
one large one, and will last for years. The jar should have a double 
cover. 

The Best All-Round Greenhouse. 

From "Garden and Farm Almanac" 

The best type of greenhouse for all-round purposes is unquestion- 
ably what is known as the even span — that is, a house in which the 
roof is in the form of an inverted V, so as to be exposed as much as 
possible to sunlight, and having the ridge-pole in the centre. All 
other types of houses are modifications from this simplest form, and 
are designed in some way or other to fit some special requirements. 
These requirements may be: the cultural necessities inside, more or 
less abnormal at given seasons (as in a forcing house) ; or an adapta- 
tion to some peculiarity of the situation, as when a greenhouse is 
built as an adjunct to other buildings. 

It is plain common-sense that the ideal greenhouse is one in 
which the light is most nearly that which exists outside, and in which 
the heat is as evenly distributed. It is practical experience that a 
structure with as few angles and turns in it as possible, and with a 
minimum of woodwork in its superstructure, best answers these con- 
ditions. 

From the earliest days of greenhouse construction, the line of 
development has been toward a reduction of the timber and an in- 
crease in the size of the panes of glass, until today the accepted stand- 
ard of size for the glass, where the question of snow-weight is not a 
serious one, is sixteen inches wide. Even larger sizes are used in the 
best style of modern construction, and panes 24 x 24 inches are quite 



THEFLOWERGARDEN 215 

popular in commercial buildings, and there is apparently actually less 
breaking in the larger sizes ; 16 x 24 inches is a popular size. The 
weight of snow, however, is not a very serious problem, except on flat 
pitches if the inside temperature is kept to about 60 degrees. Of 
course, the larger the pane, the greater the light inside the house, and 
the more natural the growing conditions of the plants, but as an off- 
set to this is the expense of the larger sizes. Not only is the loss for 
repairs greater, but the ratio of cost increases very greatly in the 
larger sizes. It is impossible to make a quotation on the price of 
glass. It fluctuates almost as much as Wall Street securities. Six- 
teen-inch glass, or even fourteen-inch, will be found thoroughly prac- 
tical and economical in use. 

The Sash Greenhouse. 

The cheapest form of practical greenhouse is made by using hot- 
bed sash supported on a skeleton frame, from which they can be re- 
moved entirely in summer time. The standard size for the sash is 6 
X 3 ft., and the house can therefore be made in any multiples of three 
feet, as regards length. The width of the house is governed by the 
pitch of the roof. Using two sash for an even span, the ends of the 
sash supported by a central ridge-pole, a width of about ten feet 
would be had, giving the pitch to the roof a rise of about seven inches 
to the foot. Such a house can be built for very moderate cost. The 
lumber for a house may be estimated roughly at about $3 per lineal 
foot, and the glass at $1.50 per foot. Carpentering and other labor 
will vary from $2.50 to $3 a foot; and together with heating a house 
of this style twenty feet long, may be erected for possibly $250. If 
iron frame is used, instead of all wood, there is greater durability, and 
the structure being more slender, will admit more light, but the cost 
will be increased by perhaps $100. 

Comparative Costs. 

It makes very little difference what form of house is to be erected. 
The cost per lineal foot for an even span is practically the same as for 
a lean-to of the same length and width. In the lean-to, in order to 
get the sufficient bench and walk space inside, it is necessar}^ to carry 
the roof to a point much higher than in the even span house. The 
extra framework and material for the roof cost a good deal, yet add 
practically nothing to the efficiency of the house. 

The three-quarter span house, which differs from the even span, 
in having the ridge nearer to one side, and a short span from there 
down to the top of a high wall is equivalent to a lean-to with a few 
feet on the top cut off and turned over. It is a practical house for 
fruit trees particularly, where the main object is to maintain a slight 
degree of forcing. Such a house should stand with its exposure to the 
south; in other words, it should extend east and west; the object 
being to secure as much of the sun's heat as possible rather than 
abundance of light. 

For ordinary plants, such as the amateur will grow in a general 
collection, a lean-to is not so well adapted as the even span because 



216 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

the illumination being all from one side, the plants get drawn in 
that direction, just the same as they do in the ordinary window- 
garden. 

Where the glass structure is designed for ornamental purposes as 
much as for utility, what is known as the curvilinear roof is very 
popular because it does away with the straight lines and sharp angles 
which characterize the simple greenhouse. The curved line adds a 
degree of beauty, and where this is an important consideration, a little 
of utility may be sacrificed for the sake of art. 

The Roof Pitch. 

Greenhouse builders vary the degree of pitch of the roof up and 
down from 7>4 inches to the foot, but it is always somewhere around 
that figure, which is equivalent to an angle of 32 degrees. This angle 
allows the sunlight to pass through the glass most directly for the 
longest time during the day, together with accomplishing the very 
desirable object of quickly shedding the snow. A roof that ap- 
proaches the flat presents a big problem in winter, and artificial 
means may have to be resorted to in order to remove the snow and 
admit light to the growing plants, but its most serious objection is the 
impossibility of making it tight — it will surely leak. A pitch of six 
inches to the foot is as low as should be built. A much higher pitch, 
while solving the snow and leakage problems, results in a great loss 
of light at the times of year when the sun does not rise very high and 
when it is most needed. 

In the curvilinear roof there is always some one portion, it is true, 
at which the sun's rays strike at right angles, but in by far the larger 
portion the glass is standing at all variations from that to the per- 
pendicular, when practically no light is passed through. Another 
objection is that this very pretty roof is certainly 10 per cent more 
costly. 

The Direction of the Sun. 

There is a division of opinion as to how a house should be placed 
in relation to the sun. One that is built entirely of glass should per- 
haps best run north and south. It is evident that this will give the 
greatest exposure to the sun during the longest numbers of hours, 
both sides receiving illumination at some time during the day. The 
small end of the house to the north is the only portion that does not 
receive the sun directly. 

For this very reason, it is better to select a south wall of a house 
for the ordinary conservatory, or lean-to greenhouse, when such is 
erected in connection with the dwelling. The north side of such a 
house has no glass whatever. Most florists, however, are now plac- 
ing their carnation and rose houses east and west. 

The Commonest Blunders. 
The chief mistakes which the amateur is likely to make in con- 
structing his own greenhouse are these : 

1. Insecure framework. 

2. Too heavy lumber and other than cypress. 



THEFLOWERGARDEN 217 

3. Incorrect pitch to the roof. 

4. Lack of economy in internal space. 

5. Skimping the walls and foundations. 

Perhaps the last is the most common of all, and when the winter 
comes, the problem of maintaining a proper growing temperature 
causes more anxiety than the whole crop of the house is worth. A 
greenhouse must be built for winter; it is not an uncommon sight to 
see an otherwise very pretty and satisfactory little house which has 
to be boarded up and packed all around the foundations with some 
heat-retaining material, so as to keep the inside comfortable. The 
saving of perhaps $100 or even less, at the very beginning of things, 
thus results in an annual expenditure in hard cash of perhaps $10 or 
$15 and always with the risk of the weather being just a little bit 
more severe than usual, and the result being a total loss of the most 
valuable plants. 

The Question of Width. 

The standard widths for greenhouses are 6 feet 8 inches for a 
lean-to with one bench, and 9 feet 4 inches for a lean-to with two 
benches, and a central walk. The difference in width which gives the 
extra bench is very slight and the cost for twenty-five feet is for the 
single bench $450, for the double bench $700. An even span house 
9x17 ft. all wood frame, boiler and heating complete, can be erected 
for $500. 

Heating the House. 

In a greenhouse in which a general collection of plants is to be 
grown it is necessary to maintain a temperature of from fifty-five to 
sixty degrees, when it is zero weather outside. Lettuce and violets 
may be grown in a house which runs ten degrees lower than this, but 
no one should build a greenhouse of the ordinary type, and calculate 
on maintaining a lower degree of heat than what is here given. 

Heating is best done by hot water, and in a small house the pipes 
may well be connected with the heating system used for the dwelling, 
if the greenhouse and the home are within any sort of reasonable 
distance from each other. For large houses or ranges of several 
houses together, the independent heating plant is necessary. Steam 
is used for heating by commercial florists, but it is economical only 
on a large scale. As a uniform degree of temperature must be main- 
tained in the house, the fires, where steam is used, need watching con- 
tinuously during cold weather, for the moment the water ceases to 
boil, the pipes cool ofif, and some considerable time is consumed in 
starting the heat running again. With hot water there is much more 
latitude in attention, for though the fires dwindle, the water which 
fills the pipes will carry heat for a long time, and it will circulate until 
the last degree is radiated. But a hot water system costs in the 
installation about one-fourth more than steam. Very small houses 
may be successfully heated by kerosene stoves, which may be placed 
inside the house. The fumes which may be given ofif are not likely to 
be seriously injurious to plants. A much better way would be to use 
oil heaters for an inside water circulation, carrying ofif all products of 



218 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

combustion by means of a flue. Coal stoves should never be installed 
inside the house. It has been done successfully by some amateurs, but 
the danger of coal gas being driven back into the house by a down 
draft in the chimney is always present, and is too great a risk to run. 
Coal gas and illuminating gas are two virulent poisons of plants. 

Figuring the Heating. 

How to maintain a minimum of 55 degrees? It's quite easy to 
know what to do. Find the area of your glass surface in square feet, 
and allow one foot of radiating surface for every three feet of glass. 
Walls up to two and one half feet high are generally ignored in mak- 
ing the calculations for heating. If they are anything more than this, 
allow one-fifth of the area as equivalent to glass. Heating is usually 
laid on by 4-inch (outside measure) cast iron pipe, if water is used, 
and one lineal foot of this equals one square foot of radiating surface. 

Another commonly used size is 2-inch wrought iron, of which 1.6 
lineal feet is equivalent to one square foot of radiating surface. 

Having ascertained the amount of radiating surface necessary, it 
is an easy matter, upon reference to the catalogues of greenhouse 
builders and boiler makers, to decide upon the capacity of the boiler 
to be bought. These details are all tabulated. 

Though as a matter of fact it may be taken for granted that the 
maker's statement represents slightly under the full efficiency of the 
boiler, yet there is nothing like having reserve power, and the ama- 
teur who wants comfort in his greenhouse, and comfort in running it in 
heavy weather, will purchase a boiler which is listed to feed at least 
25 per cent more area than he really requires. There is not only re- 
serve power for unusual strains but a big, deep fire can be operated 
with so much less labor, and actually during the winter months, with 
a less consumption of coal than would be the case with a boiler that 
was piped to its full efficiency. 



CHAPTER XV 

Qees 

BEE keeping is a profitable business if the bees are rightfully 
cared for. The bee is the wisest of the wise among the ani- 
mal kingdom. He rises early, flies afar to the hills and loads 
himself with the finest of the sweets that the land affords. Day 
after day he grades these as he gathers them, putting the beautiful 
white clover honey by itself, the basswood by itself, and the buck- 
wheat flavor has its own place. Selecting and arranging in this or- 
derly fashion he continues through the season of bloom, going miles 
often for honey. As a co-worker on the farm, he is an excellent aid 
to the pollenizing of fruits, and as a syrup and sugar factory he is a 
marvel of mechanism and industry. 

Bee keeping, in order to pay, must be conducted on simple, cheap, 
but effective principles. A safe rule for the beginner is to buy only 
such fixtures as he cannot get along without. An extension ladder 
to get a swarm of bees down from a tall tree is better than any swarm 
catcher on the market. If one does not "fuss' too much a good many 
bee colonies can be taken care of on a farm without neglecting any 
of the farm work. On a poultry farm, bees can well be kept, as the 
hardest part of the bee work comes when poultry work is compara- 
tively light. The most important thing to remember in bee keeping 
is to make them pay for themselves as you go. Begin small, and in- 
crease only as you can see that it will pay to do so. Then you will not 
pay too dearly for your experience. Yet bees must have systematic 
and consistent attention. The writer has seen 150 to 200 colonies put 
in the cellar in November, and the same number taken out in April, 
alive and in good shape for work. 

The Essentials. 

Three essentials were necessary for this: a good queen, not more 
than one or two years old (a queen from the present season's raising 
is still better) ; an allowance of from 25 to 40 pounds of honey, accord- 
ing to the location, to each colony, or of sugar syrup ; and a good 
cellar, free from damp, with a temperature that does not vary more 
than two or three degrees during the winter. If the covers are re- 
moved, and this was the method followed in this instance, the hives 
are better ventilated. But the frames must be covered with good, 
heavy ducking just after supers have been taken ofif. This allows the 
bees to seal down the cloth, and gives a bee tight cover when the 
board is removed. 

Spring is the best time to make a start with bees. If you are a 
beginner, and don't know a good colony from a poor one, bargain with 
a neighbor for the first swarms that issue. The early swarms yield a 



220 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

good lot of honey, at least enough to pay for the bees, and they are 
sure to have the most prolific queens, which means thousands of work- 
ers for the season. Of course, you will inspect your bees before buy- 
ing; and equally, of course, you will inspect the hives you buy. Get 
good moveable hives first — the kind that are loose from the bottom 
boards, fastened on by two hooks and staples on each side. In hot 
weather all hives need to be raised for ventilation, and the bottom 
board should be cleaned often. A good, strong colony ought to weigh 
at least five pounds, which would mean about 12,000 bees. Face the 
hives south or east, and near a good hedge of evergreens, fruit trees or 
grape trellises as a protection both from too much wind or too much 
sun. Never open hives when the early spring day is too cold for bees 
to be flying freely. In moving bees from one location to another be 
careful not to smother them by too close confinement. Bees readily 
adjust themselves to a new location. 

Protect the Hives. 

A double covering on windy days is desirable, so that late snows 
or cold rains may not chill the bees. If you can't do any better, turn 
a big box over the hive. Be sure to first saw out a little opening that 
will correspond with the opening of the hive, so that the bees can get 
fresh air, and so that they can take little flights as the weather warms 
up. A big box, even without chaff, is a great warmer. If tight at the 
bottom, so no wind blows in, it gives a chamber of dead air, and that 
is a good non-conductor. 

Remember that the bees cannot get honey even on warm days of 
early spring, except from soft maple blossoms and willows and dande- 
lions. In late spring warm weather one bee keeper feeds syrup in a 
large trough at one side of the apiary, using corn cobs or sticks of 
wood for the bees to alight upon. All spring food must be as thin as 
water and quite warm. A little experience will tell one very soon how 
to know when the hives are keeping in good condition. If flying bees 
are active in May in normally good weather and if there are plenty of 
bees with pollen on their legs going into the hive you can reasonably 
conclude that the inside of the hive is doing as it should. 

Shipping Bees. 

About May 1st is the best time to buy or sell bees or ship them. 
In buying bees get good Italian bees in movable frame hives. Get 
hives heavy with bees, without caring much about the honey weight. 
See if the cluster nearly fills the hive and if the combs are straight and 
built in the frames. In moving bees by wagon or shipping by rail- 
road, do it in April or May. The frames are probably fast with pro- 
polis, and by nailing a wire screen over the entrance early in the morn- 
ing, before they begin to fly, the hives are ready for removal. Look 
the hives over first for cracks and secure the honey board down by 
nails or screws. The combs are tougher at this season, the honey 
less, and the bees fewer. 

Moving in warm weather needs much care. The bees are likely 
to create a great deal of heat by their agitation, enough to melt the 



BEES 221 

combs. These will fall and smother the colony. It is best to remove 
the two outside combs if very heavy with honey, and put in some dry 
and empty ones or some with cold water in them. Also remove the 
honey board and tack a wire screen over the whole top, protecting it 
with strips of cloth. This will give upward ventilation. 

Summary for General Spring Treatment. 

I give a summary for treatment of bees generally, as soon as 
spring management can be thought of and the bees are out of the cel- 
lar. Of course, you have kept an eye to the stocks and as to the sup- 
ply of honey. Do this by raisng the honey board, pufif in a little 
smoke and look for sealed honey. If none is in sight a further exam- 
ination is needed. If no honey is found it will be necessary to give 
feed. Make it of granulated sugar and half water and sugar, boiled 
until dissolved, cooled to blood heat, and then feed. Use the pepper 
box or suction feeder, which can be inverted above a colony and from 
which they can eat up clean without draggling themselves. Maple 
sugar is good for bees and a pure New Orleans syrup — not a purified 
one — will be eaten by the bees. Do not feed if the hive has plenty of 
honey. A teacupful of syrup every other evening is enough for a 
large colony, unless continuous breeding is going on, when a teacup- 
ful every evening should be given. During April and May this is 
very important. Often even in June there will be a cold rain. The 
bees can get no honey and the lack of sufficient feeding makes such 
inroads by the young bees on the honey accumulated that the colonies 
have starved. The bees often eat their own larvae then. Therefore be 
sure to look well after the feeding question. 

Bees require constant management of this sort in order to make 
them profitable. Bees left to do as they please will swarm three or 
four times in the season, requiring many hives and thus greatly add- 
ing to the expense. This can be prevented by giving additional room 
at the right time, before the bees prepare to swarm, but not before 
honey begins to come into the hive. If the extra supers are put on 
too early they may hinder brood rearing. But if too late, and the 
queen cells are started, it is almost impossible to prevent a swarm. 
Give the extra supers at just the right time, when as many as fifty bees 
are coming out per minute and are showing much activity. Give good 
ventilation, also, and shade the hives in the middle of the day and 
you can control swarming to a great extent. Some bee keepers take 
out their queens in June, not allowing the bees to swarm at all. By 
this method the storing of a large surplus of honey goes on. 

"It is well to keep watch and try to find out what flowers the bees 
are working on and notice whether or not they are bringing in honey. 
By lifting the honey board or cover board it is easy to see whether 
they are getting more than is needed by the increasing brood. If 
honey can be seen in the top cells and bits of white new comb are 
being built on top of the frames, put on the supers at once. But you 
can't do these things in the nick of time unless you have supers ready." 

The first day after being set out of the cellar in the spring, bees 
are eager for water and large quantities will be brought in. Open the 



222 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

entrance wide the first day so that all can have a free chance to fly and 
clean out the hive of dead bees, but on the evening of the first day con- 
tract the entrance w^ith blocks to two inches. The bees will be better 
able to protect themselves from robber bees and to keep warm. Don't 
leave bits of honey about the yard at this season. The bees taste it, 
and it excites them with the desire to rob. The strong bees will then 
get stung to death from robber bees and the weak will be overpow- 
ered. 

Soon your bees will begin to show the results of good care in 
the spring if they went into winter hibernating with a young queen, 
who is now laying eggs and has been all through the spring. The 
bees will be flying far, and all this outside bustle will mean combs in 
the hive filled with capped brood, larvas and eggs, and plenty of bees 
to darken them. At the same time enough honey for food and sur- 
plus is being stored along the top bars or the corners of the frame. 
Your bees are on the job again. 

Safe Wintering. 

The most important part of the bee keeping is their safe winter- 
ing. If the bee hives have been managed during the summer accord- 
ing to the previous directions this will not be such a care as it seems. 
A good queen — not too old — for each colony, and plenty of late 
hatched bees, with good honey — (June honey is the best) — generally 
insure safe wintering, though the cellar must be dry. In states where 
the mercury drops to 40 below zero occasionally and stays below 
freezing for weeks at a time extra precautions must be taken as to 
cellar keeping. In mild climates outdoor wintering is generally prac- 
ticed, but this method is more expensive as to preparations and the 
bees take more honey. A cellar gives the three most needed requisites 
for bee wintering, which are, absolute darkness, quiet and a tempera- 
ture at about 50 degrees. If you can keep potatoes in good condition 
through the winter you can keep bees there. 

For a cold climate the hives should be taken into the cellar on a 
dry day, sometime near the 1st of November. The hives should be 
raised from the ground a little, and racks on each side of the cellar, 
slanted one inch incline from back to front and strong enough to hold 
several hives placed above each other will be needed. Leave all upper 
covers outside and the entrance wide open for several days. Ventilate 
by an upward tube 6 inches square. Each colony should have about 
three pounds of honey per month during winter. Use no artificial 
heat, but simply make your cellar frost safe and regulate the heat by 
opening or closing ventilators. A cellar 8 feet deep, in a sandy soil, 
is the best. For such a cellar 40 degrees all winter is a safe tempera- 
ture. 

The more honey you can give your bees the better will be their 
condition in the spring. The success of your whole season will depend 
upon the strength that each colony brings from the winter confine- 
ment. They must have enough food also to keep them raising broods 
during April and May, for it is the early bee that gets the June honey 
plentifully for a surplus. Don't worry if 3'ou don't hear your bees 



BEES 223 

hum, and don't begin to bring the hives out of the cellar into the open 
air with the very first warm days. The bees are wiser than we. They 
don't hum because they know there is nothing for them to do yet, 
with no flowers open, and they would only wear themselves out flying 
for food. The queens also ought to be laying well by March, and if 
the broods get a chill by a change of temperature the colony is that 
much weaker. Stick to the cellar, at least in the 30 degrees below 
zero states, until warm weather. 

Sweep up the dead bees once in two weeks in the winter. Brush 
them ofif from the entrance board to the hives, and dig them out from 
the bottom of the hive with a long, slim splinter. They must not be 
left to interfere with the ventilation of the bunched up colonies. Keep 
the bee cellar sweet and clean for the health of the family also, as 
well as for that of the bees. If a whole cellar cannot be given up to 
bees, in order to be sure of dark quarters, partition off a part with 
studding and building paper. 

I will add here some directions as to arranging hives in the cellar, 
which are very exact and detailed and are given by a professional bee 
keeper. They are intended for a large number of colonies: 

Arranging Hives. 

"The proper way to arrange hives in the cellar is to put down 
scantling the proper width apart and nail with lath to keep them in 
place, using a spirit level to set them so that the hives won't 'teeter' 
when put in place. Begin at one end and set them down four inches 
apart, and after completing one row remove the covers and raise each 
hive off the bottom by two little blocks, J^-inch thick. This gives 
plenty of ventilation and allows a space for dead bees. Before pro- 
ceeding with the next row, cover the first one with old carpet, grain 
sacks or any cloth that may be handy, placing on top of that a y% strip 
the whole length of the row and at the rear of the hives. This piece 
is to equalize the blocks at the entrance so that the next row sits level. 
It also helps to bind the rows together so that they will remain per- 
fectly steady if piled five or six rows high." 

Don't take bees out of the cellar as soon as the snow is all off 
and a few warm days appear. In the northwestern middle states from 
the 15th of April to about May 1st is the best time. If you wait too 
long and flowers appear, the bees will fly too freely every day and 
get so much pollen that the queen bee will lay too many eggs and the 
old bees will have too much to do in flying and brood-rearing. This 
exhausts them needlessly and they die off before the young hatch 
out, as most of the eggs laid by the queen are laid after the hives are 
set out. About three weeks after being put out the young bees hatch, 
and by this time, if the hives are set out after blossom time, the old 
bees have died out so much that the outside combs of brood die or 
wither down to a small number. On the other hand, by setting out 
hives early on a warm day, the bees begin to breed at once. But after 
the first cold snap comes again the old bees stay inside and attend to 
the brood, there being no temptation to long flights. They thus keep 
the brood nests warm, and the young bees begin to hatch out while 



224 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

the old ones are with them. The hive is much warmer and the young 
bees are saved until settled warm weather comes. 

Clip the queen's wings in the early part of May. This prevents 
high swarming or wood nests. Open a hive without smoking, if pos- 
sible, raise the combs quickly till you see the queen, catch her by both 
wings with the right hand, clip the thin gauzy part oflf one wing and 
set her back on the comb, closing the hive at once. This can be done 
as soon as a queen is laying and no harm done. Never clip a virgin 
queen, as mating is done in the air. If clipped she will never be 
mated. One mating for life is enough. In the spring great care 
should be used in taking bees out of the hives. They will chill if very 
near the ground. A little sprinkling of quite long straw, scattered 
on the ground close to the hives, is a good safeguard. The bees will 
fall on the straw and can crawl into the hives. 

Bees in a Cave. 

One bee keeper winters his bees in a cave built in a side hill. The 
cave is ceiled with stone flagging; and over this are several feet of 
earth which is kept dry by means of gable roof. Back of this cave, to 
the northwest, is a fence which causes the roof to be covered, in win- 
ter, with drifted snow. There are four doors to pass through, in enter- 
ing the cave, thus providing three dead air spaces. It is hardly neces- 
sary to say that this cave is both dry and warm and is shielded from 
noises of all kinds. 

In many of the middle states, bees are wintered outdoors with 
success, but in such conditions the hives are packed in outer protec- 
tion, usually cases made from dry goods boxes. These cases should 
be painted dark to absorb as much of the sun's rays as possible. It 
is best not to fill in at the bottom of the case. An air space of a few 
inches is best here. For the rest of the air space use some good pack- 
ing material, and have five or six inches of this on top. Do this pack- 
ing on a day when the bees are able to fly. The opening in the win- 
ter case must be cut to correspond with that of the hive. For winter 
this should be contracted to three-eighths by three inches for good, 
strong colonies. For weak ones three-eighths by two inches is better. 
Anything deeper than the three-eighths inch will admit mice. The 
little field mice will even go through a less depth than this. 

In southern and more temperate climates a good substantial hive 
with a tight roof will keep rain and snow from the colony when out- 
doors. Be sure to have a full width entrance, but no top ventilation in 
such cases. The bees must have air, but a draft is very bad. Have 
the entrances shallow and long instead of round. 

Uniting Stock. 

It is a good plan when uniting weak stocks with stronger, to 
choose a time when swarms begin to leave a strong colony. When 
the swarm is in the air, set the parent hive ofT the stand, put a new 
one with wax starters on this and hive the new swarm in it. Open 
the parent hive, shake the remaining bees down in front and let them 
run in with the swarm. The brood combs can be given to a small 










Bees in glass case— making the comb. 



BEES 225 

colony with a good queen. This will bring up the weak stock rapidly, 
and in a week or so they will be making surplus honey. 

February is a good time to get what extra hives are needed. Any 
man — or woman — handy with tools, can not only make their own 
hives, but some for the neighbors. If you can't do that, buy them in 
the flat and put them together. The old plain Langstroth hive is as 
good today as it ever was, and there are more of these in use today 
than of all the other kinds together. As to sections, the old style 
4^4x434 one is practical and simple for the small bee keeper. Sec- 
tions and starters are necessary if comb honey is to be produced for 
the market. But be sure to have these in the supers in plenty of time 
before the swarming season is due. If you get this surplus depart- 
ment ready before the rush of spring work is on at the farm you will 
be ready to meet the bee half way, when he is ready for work. It has 
been said truly that "a. bee never begins business until he is thorough- 
ly ready to carry it on, and then he never does it by halves." 

Feeding the Bees. 

September is the best time to feed bees that are short of honey 
to winter on. Inspect your bees the first of September. If there is 
less than from 12 to 14 pounds in the hive, stored compactly in the 
center of the brood apartment, for each swarm or colony, then feed 
them while the weather is warm. This will do away with the winter 
fussing and be much better in the end. The syrup must be placed in 
the hive so that no other swarms or hives can get in to rob. To do 
this, close the entrance but be sure that the bees have plenty of air. 
Never allow bees to enter winter quarters without plenty of stores for 
food. Syrup for winter feeding should be made much richer than that 
for spring feeding: To fifteen quarts of water brought to a boil, add 
thirty pounds of granulated sugar. Stir till all is dissolved, bring to 
a boil and skim. Cool and add three pounds of extracted honey, which 
prevents the hardening of the syrup in the feeders. 

Another good way to make and feed the syrup is to bring to a boil 
two quarts of water and dissolve in it four quarts of granulated sugar. 
Boil and skim. Try a little in a saucer by stirring with a spoon until 
cold. If thick enough to cake it is ready to work. If not, boil more 
and try again. When thick, set in a cool place and stir till it turns 
white. Pour upon buttered plates in amounts that will weigh about 
two pounds, and let this harden into cakes. Lay these cakes on the 
frames above the bees. Keep the cellar at a temperature of fifty or 
fifty-five degrees, and the bees will winter as well as though fed 
honey. Great care must be taken not to brown or scorch the syrup 
while boiling, as then it will kill the bes. 

Shipping Bees and Honey. 

It is well, in shipping bees, to tack on a shipping card warning 
against letting the bees stand in the sun. In selling honey cultivate 
your nearest market before trying the big cities. Keep the honey on 
sale there the year around. It has been said that every town of one 
thousand people will, consume a ton of honey a year if the producer 



225 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

handles his market ric^ht. Not many farmers keep bees, and there- 
fore even in a farming- community there is a demand. At any rate, 
don't try the big cities until you have solicited your own home mar- 
kets thoroughly. It is important to put your honey on the market in 
first class shape. Keep the honey in a very dry and warm place, espe- 
cially the comb honey, or extracted honey. Grade the comb honey 
and bottle and label the extracted. Candied honey should be sacked. 
Have your own trade mark and never allow it to stand for an inferior 
article. 

An Oregon bee keeper gives these directions for making sacked 
honey, or candied honey. This honey product can be handled and 
shipped with such ease that it commends itself to the man who keeps 
bees for profit : 

"To prepare honey for 'sacking' it is first run through a straining 
machine and it might be added that comb honey not up to the stand- 
ard makes a 'sacked honey' of first g^rade. After straining-, the honey 
is placed in large vats and set out in the open, when the heat of 
the sun clarifies it. The vats are tightly covered that no dust or im- 
purities can enter. The clear honey is drawn ofif after it has remained 
two weeks in the vats. It is then put in sacks and allowed to stand 
exposed to the air a few days. It then candies or solidifies, and is 
ready to be put in rolls for the market." 

Bee Pests and Diseases. 

Bees are no longer considered immune to disease. In fact, the 
germ question for bee keepers is almost as pressing as it is to the 
medical world and the human race generally. In this matter, though, 
it is just as true as with man, that an ounce of prevention is worth a 
pound of cure. Keep only strong colonies and then bend every effort 
to maintaining the strength of the colonies by proper winter care and 
inspection. Foul brood is becoming one of the most dreaded of bee 
diseases, as it works so insidiously that a whole apiary may be in- 
fected before the fact is known. Nearly everything hinges upon 
how well the bees come through the winter, and their well being at 
this time, granted that the hives go in in strong condition, depends 
chiefly upon three things : an ample supply of food, even temperature, 
and good ventilation, but no chills — eternal vigilance, in fact. 

The wax moth is another pest of the bee keeping business. This 
moth is hatched from eggs laid by a brown miller, such as can be seen 
around hives in summer. As these eggs are always present in combs 
that bees are on_during the winter, put all empty combs that are hung 
up or stored away in some place where they will be frozen all winter 
long and hang them with an inch space between them. If there is am- 
ple space on both sides of a comb it is seldom destroyed by the worms. 
The best way to protect from this moth is to keep your colonies strong 
and provided with a queen. In strong colonies the bees drag out every 
worm as fast as it appears. 

Beeswax. 

In making beeswax by home methods use soft water and bright 
tin ware or granite ware enameled. If possible do the work outside 



BEES 227 

tile house or in some out building-. Use great care as to boiling over, 
on account of the inflammable nature of the process. If you have a 
large quantity the wash boiler may be needed. Make coarse sacks of 
loosely woven material, put in the comb, pound them well, tie the 
sacks closely and lay on a piece of board laid on the botton of the 
vessel you use. Fit another board on top and weight down by heavy 
weights. Cover with water, boil slowly, let the wax cool over night 
and remove next day. Or, if you want to boil up more comb, skim 
off wax, and add combs, and water as needed. For clarified yellow 
wax, melt a second time, strain into a vessel with water in it with 
flaring sides. Put in oven and cool very slowly. 

The "ABC of Bee Culture" gives a simple way of treating combs 
if you want a small quantity of bees wax. 

"Take an old dripping pan and split open one corner. Put the 
bits of comb in the pan and put the pan in the oven of the cook stove, 
leaving its door open. Let the leaking corner of the pan project out of 
the oven with a dish beneath to catch the wax, and have the end of the 
pan inside the oven raised an inch. The heat of the stove will do 
the rest." 

But the finest wax is produced by a solar wax extractor. This is 
a box lined with tin and covered with glass and placed in a sunny spot 
in the yard at such an angle as to get the direct rays of the sun. These 
extractors are sold by supply dealers at from $4.00 to $6.00, or you 
could make one if you saw a picture of it. I don't think they are 
patented. 

One of these sitting in the yard, into which all the scraps and 
scrapings of the hives can be thrown, is a very handy and very satis- 
factory adjunct. 

Bee Stings. 

Persons with weak heart action should be very careful about 
exposing themselves to bee stings. The first thing to do when one 
receives a sting is to remove the stinger if possible. This should be 
scraped off at once, rather than pulled out with the thumb and finger, 
because the sack containing the poison is usually left by the bee, and 
as the stinger is a hollow tube, squeezing the poison-sack injects more 
venom into the flesh. Ammonia applied to the wound is recom- 
mended. Cold water will allay the pain. 

If one is at work with bees and receives a sting, the best imme- 
diate remedy I have found is to smoke the part. As the lighted 
smoker is usually at hand it is easily applied. This destroys the scent 
left by the sting and other bees are not attracted by the smell to in- 
crease the dose. Wet soda, wet mud, or permanganate of potash, if 
applied at once, will, any one, be a good remedy. Most people become 
immune after handling bees for a few years, and the poison will not 
cause much swelling, though it will give as severe pain. . An old bee 
keeper says : 

"One must know when and how to handle bees, and when to let 
them alone. Because one can protect oneself by netting and gloves 
so as to be almost proof against stings, it is not wise to handle them 
at all times. Only extreme necessity will warrant it, because when 



228 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

once stirred up at an inopportune time the bad effects may remain 
for a long time. If nectar is scarce and they have a tendency to rob 
each other, one must be careful when he opens a hive. At such a 
time, if necessary to examine them or to perform some operation, it 
should be done toward evening or when few bees are in the air." 

Another good remedy for the sting of wasps or bees is to apply 
common table salt, moistened with a little water. Where a bee is 
accidentally swallowed, and the throat stung, the alarming symptoms 
that follow are instantly relieved by drinking copiously of salty water. 

Among the honey-producing plants the basswood makes a honey 
of delicious flavor. Fruit blooms help the bee out in activity at honey- 
making; alfalfa, sweet clover, white and alsike clover, melons, cante- 
loups, cucumbers and buckwheat are each of great value and can all 
be grown on the farm. The second crop of red clover is also some- 
times visited by the honey bee, but in the main the bumble-bee is 
the chief poUenizer of red clover. Unless the second crop of red 
clover has been dwarfed by dry weather, so that the nectar tubes are 
shorter, the honey bee cannot reach the nectar. 

The Life of the Bee. 

[The following description of the life of the bee was written by 
Mrs. Barnes of Hamline, Minn., who knew the writer and contributed 
this most interesting article to this volume.] 

It is an impossibility to give a full description of the life of that 
most wonderful little creature known as the honey bee in a few 
brief pages, since a whole book could be written on the subject. So 
we have gathered together some of th'e most important facts and will 
endeavor to give them in such condensed form as these pages will 
allow. 

The bee hive may be compared to a city containing from 20,000 to 
60,000 inhabitants, whose houses, having no windows, but only doors 
opening into them, allow each owner to enter, and are just large 
enough for this and no more. These houses are very evenly built, 
with here and there a few royal palaces larger than the others, for the 
queen and princesses. Some of the common houses are used for the 
storage of food in the summer to feed the inhabitants, and still 
other houses that are occupied only to live in during winter. Al- 
though the doors remain open, none of these little citizens ever leave 
home, except to perform different duties which are done in the proper 
time, in an orderly and law-abiding manner, thus causing no friction 
whatever in the upbuilding of this wonderful city. 

One queen reigns over all, and she also makes herself useful, obey- 
ing all the laws that concern her work and life among her subjects. 

And so thousands of these little creatures are busily engaged from 
sunrise to sunset passing in and out through the door (just large 
enough for two to pass each other). Although all seems to be dis- 
order and confusion, yet each one is doing her own appointed work 
and perfect order reigns over the whole. 

And now for the way these interesting little workers of this 
strange and wonderful city go about their daily duties : , 



BEES 229 

A cluster or swarm of bees may be procured on some sunny 
morninq- in May, by going into a country garden, where they will 
sometimes be seen hanging in a large bunch to the bough of an old 
apple tree. Many thousands thus hang together, by each bee clinging 
with its forelegs to the hinder legs of the one above it. They would, 
if left alone, soon find a home in some cavity or shelter somewhere 
and begin to build a honey comb, but wishing to obtain their honey 
we will bring a hive, hold it under them, and shake the bough gently 
so that the bees fall into it, whereupon they will cling to the sides 
as we turn it over on a piece of linen on the stand where the hive is to 
remain. Almost immediately the industrious little insects will arrange 
to make their new home. There are the drones or males, large and 
dark, who never do any work during their whole lives except on one 
or two days ; the small working bees or barren females, and the queen, 
blacker than the rest, having a long body and short wings, and which 
is the fertile bee. 

Some of the working bees fly off in search of honey. Others see 
that all cracks in the hive are filled up (they do not like the light to 
get in), using a sort of gum called propolis, which they gather from 
plants having sticky buds. Others again cluster around the queen, 
for she must be watched and tended, while the largest number begin 
to hang in a cluster as when found on the bough of the apple tree. 
Presently one bee settles on the ceiling of the hive and turns round 
and round to make room for herself to work in, then with her fore 
legs she brings a scale of wax from a sort of pocket located under the 
abdomen, and holding it in her upper jaws she bites and moistens it 
with her tongue, forming a paste which she draws out like a ribbon 
and plasters on the top of the hive. She will do the same thing again 
until all the wax is exhausted, for she has eight of these little wax 
pockets. Then she leaves a small lump of wax on the bar stretched 
across the ceiling, and flies away from the hive. So, one after another, 
will the rest of this large number go through the same process, till 
a large wall of wax has been built, hanging from the bar of the hive. 

By this time the honey gatherers are returning laden with honey. 
But no cells having been made yet, they just hang quietly onto the 
other bees, remaining thus about 24 hours, during which time they 
digest the honey, part of which forms wax, which oozes out from the 
scales under their body. Then they are ready to help plaster wax on 
the hive with the other bees. When a rough lump of wax has been 
formed, another lot of bees who nurse and prepare cells for the young 
ones, come to do their work, which consists in forming the base of a 
cell. This is done one after another, the same work proceeding on 
the other side of the wax, so that a series of hollows are made back 
to back all over the comb. Then the bees form hexagonal tubes 
about half an inch deep upon these hollows, making them ready for 
the honey or bee eggs. The work is so well done that the tubes fit 
into each other perfectly and not a bit of space is lost, besides making 
a warm house for the young bees. One comb being finished they 
proceed to make another leaving a path just wide enough for two 



230 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

bees to pass back to back. Thus do they keep busy until the hive 
is full of combs. 

When a few of the cells are made, the bees laden with honey begin 
to store it. They gather it from flowers by means of a sort of long 
tongue or under lip which is thrust into the flower and a drop of 
honey sucked out. This is swallowed into a honey bag or first stom- 
ach lying between the throat and real stomach. When she is ready 
she can empty this bag through her mouth into the honey cells. 

The bee also gathers pollen from flowers when they are moist 
with dew, or else from some moist, shady place, if the dew has disap- 
peared, and packs it in the joints of her hind legs, making them look 
like swelled joints. On arriving home the nursing bees take this 
pollen from them, and eat it themselves; also mix it with honey to 
feed the young bees. Should there be an overabundance it is stored 
away in old honey cells. Sometimes it is found in a honey comb. It 
is bitter, and is called bee bread. 

When the bee is relieved of the bee bread, she stands on the 
edge of one of the clean new cells and throws up the contents of her 
honey bag into it. Thus the busy bee must continue to be indeed 
very busy day after day in order to fill all the cells, which, of course, 
remain uncovered, the honey being too thick and sticky to flow out, 
and is used every day for food. Should there be more than a sufifl- 
ciency for daily needs, they close the cells with wax for winter use. 

A day or two after the bees are settled in the hive, the queen 
mother, which has been kept closely in-doors, is allowed to come out 
now and do as she wishes. So she goes in and out for a time and at 
last soars away. All the drones follow forming an escort wherever 
she goes. She soon returns, however, and all the working bees 
gather around her on her arrival knowing that she will now remain 
and proceed after a day or two to spend all her time laying eggs. 
Many cells being now ready, besides those filled with honey, she 
begins to lay an egg in each one of these quickly, until she has visited 
all the cells on both sides of the comb, laying sometimes as many as 
200 eggs a day. A few days after, about two or three, the eggs 
have become a tiny maggot or larva, and the nursing bees having 
prepared the bee bread mentioned before, place a little in the cell's in 
which the larvae lie. Then in five or six days the larva has grown so 
well that it almost fills the cell, when the bees cover the opening with 
a thin layer of wax, leaving a small opening in the center. The 
larva then gives out from its tongue a whitish film like two threads of 
silk glued together. With this it spins a covering all round itself and 
remains about ten days more. 

About twenty-one days after the eggs have been laid, the young 
bees having become perfect, begin to eat their way out. The nursing 
bees then stroke their wings and feed them for a day, when they will 
be ready to begin work with the rest of the bees. Their number is 
legion now, and the work of storing honey and pollen dust is carried 
on rapidly. The empty cells where the young bees have been are 
cleaned out by the nurses, and these also are filled with honey, this 



BEES 231 

being darker than that stored in clean cells, the latter being called 
virgin honey because it is so pure and clear. 

In six weeks the queen begins to lay, in larger cells, eggs from 
which drones will come in about twenty days. Meanwhile the work- 
ers have been building cells on the edge of the hive with the open 
side upward, and about every three days (a fact. for which there is 
good reason, as we shall see later), she stops laying drone eggs to 
put an egg into one of these cells. These eggs are given a special 
food, being a sort of sweet, pungent jelly, and strange though it may 
be, it seems to be the peculiar food and size of these cells that make 
this larva grow into a queen bee, as such is what these cells contain. 
For if they ever lose their queen the workers take an ordinary worker 
egg and put it into one of these cells, feeding it with jelly and it 
becomes also a queen. These also spin their covering, but instead of 
covering themselves entirely as do the other larvae, they leave a hole 
at the top. In sixteen days the eldest princess is breaking her way out 
of her cell, causing the old queen to become very uneasy, for she knows 
there cannot reign two queens in one hive. So, on a bright, sunny 
day — they will never choose a wet or cloudy one — she, with many of 
the others who have clustered together with plenty of honey, will 
start to find a new home elsewhere. A large number of drones also 
go with her, and they form a compact swarm, ready to begin again, 
as was told in the first part of this writing. 

Now the new princess is reigning in the old queen's place, and 
the working bees crowd around and are profuse in their homage to 
her. About three days later, another princess is about ready to come 
out and the present princess proceeds to follow the same method car- 
ried out by her mother. She goes, taking an after-swarm with her. 
And that is why the princess eggs are three days apart, that there may 
be time for the first to get away before another comes. Now a third 
queen begins to reign, and should no new swarm wish to start she 
will proceed to kill the other princesses while yet in their cells until no 
more are left. Then she is satisfied, for she can then rule unmolested. 
A few days pass by, and she soars into the air with the drones, then 
comes home for the winter. 

Now the drones being of no more use, the workers begin to kill 
them all oE, keeping on until not one is left, not even a drone egg. 
They have no stings to defend themselves with, so they are soon de- 
stroyed. However, they could not live long if left alone, for the work- 
er cannot afTord to feed idle bees. 

All that remain now settle down to feeding the 3^oung bees, and 
storing their winter's supply. About this time we can begin to take 
their honey, which sometimes amounts to as much as thirty pounds in 
a well-stocked hive, without depriving them of their own needs. But, 
in return, we should often feed them with some sweet -syrup late in 
the fall and earl}^ in the following spring. 

A certain number of bees now begin to ventilate the cells, the air 
of which has become very impure after so many bees have been packed 
together so closely. The way this is done, some bees stand with their 
faces to the entrances, and opening their wings wave them to and 



232 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

fro. Others inside do the same thing, and a current of air is thus 
produced which ventilates the hive. Another lot of bees clean out the 
cells that were occupied by the young bees, making them ready to 
receive honey, and, again, others keep guard at the entrance of the hive 
against the destructive waxmotii which tries to lay its eggs in the 
comb that its young may feed on the honey. 

There are many insects that trouble the bees, trying to get into 
the hive, and if perchance any do happen to evade the guard a fight 
ensues in the hive and the intruder is stung to death. Very often in 
such cases a pestiferous insect's body is too large for the bees to re- 
move, so the clever little bee, in such a predicament, will bring the 
gummy propolis and cement the dead body all over with this, thus 
preventing it from decaying. 

The wonderful life of the working bee is about eight months, all 
of which time she has spent most industriously. Only the bees born 
late in the season live on till the next spring to begin their work 
then. The queen bee lives about two years, having produced thou- 
sands of young bees in that time. So much for the bees in the hive. 



CHAPTER XVI 

Poultry 

The Hens Lay Ev'ry Day. 

We need a year to grow a pig, 
'Tis two before a steer is big. 
The hens lay ev'ry day. 

Alfalfa takes three years to spread, 
A horse as colt four years we fed. 
The hens lay ev'ry day. 

A few weeks yield the honey store, 
Then blossom, fruit and all are o'er. 
The hens lay ev'ry day. 

For other things, too long we wait, 
Our life is short, and payday late. 
The hens lay ev'ry day. 

— Ida E. Tilson. 

YEARS ago poultry and eggs were listed as at the head of the 
seven great industries of the country. The 1910 census gives 
the production of eggs in that year as nearly fifteen hundred 
millions of dozens, while the production of poultry was over 
two hundred and fifty million of fowls of all sorts, three months old 
and over. This fact, so simply stated, shows that there is money for 
somebody in the poultry business in this country, even though failures 
are common, and though it has been said that where one person suc- 
ceeds a hundred fail. 

But pay no heed to the knockers, if you are willing to try what 
scientific attention to the hen can do for success in this business. 
For, in poultry business, as in everything else, more depends upon 
the man than upon the poultry. One man with a small capital and 
no experience may succeed, where another with a little experience 
but much capital will fail. A dozen fowls to start with, and a deter- 
mination to go no farther in enlarging your poultry yard than your 
results and experience will warrant will usually end by bringing satis- 
faction and at least fair profits to the farmer or professional poultry- 
man ; for "eggs is eggs," and the demand is still greater than the 
supply. 

That system of poultry housing which keeps the chickens always 
confined in small coops and yards, so that a large commercial business 
can be carried on in your back yard, is gaining a good many followers. 
But it can only succeed by the strictest attention to the feeding and 
management of the flocks, and the labor it requires, if only for the 



234 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

necessities of cleanliness in a neighborhood is great and nerve taxing. 
The expense of establishing the plant is considerable, and unless one 
has fully resolved to make a continuous business of poultrying the 
close confinement or colony method is not always a triumphant suc- 
cess. 

Remember the financial advice of some years ago, "The way to re- 
sume is to resume." There is no royal road to profit in poultry keep- 
ing. It is all a matter of good breeds, good housing, good care, and 
good food, and an unremitting attention to details, especially in zero 
weather. The poultry business is still in its infancy, and offers a field 
for the closest study — and until a man has had actual experience in 
the business he can tell nothing as to his profits. 

JBegin With Economy. 

Begin in a small way, therefore, as I have said, and gradually ex- 
tend your poultry department until it is as large as your farm will 
stand. Let the first year's work be largely one of experiment. Women 
are apt to make good poultry raisers, because success in this business 
is chiefly a matter of good housekeeping. But on account of the 
steady, hard work and close attention needed for hens and hens' quar- 
ters it is almost impossible for the farmer's wife to give the neces- 
sary time and labor to the problem. However, by a co-operation of 
farm forces, with a smart, capable woman at the helm, poultry raising 
can be made both profitable and pleasant to the farmer's family with- 
out drawing too much upon the field working forces of the farm life. 

Where fruit culture is possible the union of the two industries is 
a good policy. First visit a successful poultry plant, study its meth- 
ods, and see how they can be adapted to your own location and sur- 
roundings. In the east large families get a good income from an acre 
or less by keeping bees and hens, and raising fruit. The bees dis- 
tribute the pollen when the fruit garden is in bloom. The poultry 
pick up insects in the plum and apple orchard and the small fruit 
garden. The droppings from the henhouse, with a pint of salt added 
to a bushel of the manure, are piled up outside the henhouse and later 
spread thinly over the ground or over the snow in the winter time. 
Poultry droppings furnish the most valuable of manures for fruit or 
orchard purposes or for grass culture. I know of one New York 
farmer who considers poultry manure of more value than commercial 
fertilizers for onion raising. It is especially good also for asparagus, 
corn and strawberries. Spread fresh and lightly, and compost with 
dry earth. Some recommend lime and wood ashes with poultry drop- 
pings. But these chemicals at once begin to liberate the ammonia in 
the manure and the nitrogen in the poultry droppings is then largely 
lost. Use land plaster or road dust and cultivate immediately and you 
will get the full benefit of all the nitrogen. 

As to the number of hens to be kept for profit ; that will depend 
altogether upon the conditions of the farm life. It is better to begin 
with not more than from twelve to 25 or 40. From 200 to 300 are 
necessary for a commercial result, and many commercial yards have 
from 1,500 to 2,000 fowls. A house for 25 hens should be at least 



POULTRY 235 

12x18 feet. The 25 will lay far more eggs than 50 hens would in the 
same space, for hens need a great deal of exercise not only for egg- 
laying, but to keep them from feather pulling. This size of henhouse 
will mean about eight square feet to each fowl, and this amount 
should be enough for even the active egg-laying breeds. It is esti- 
mated that every fowl should also be given from ten to twelve cubic 
feet of air space per pound of live weight, and this amount will be 
more than secured by such a house if perfectly ventilated. Building a 
house of this dimension on the south side of a gentle slope, where the 
soil is dry and porous, and the drainage is perfect, you will be pretty 
certain to keep your fowls healthy. Such a house can be easily supple- 
mented as to size when building, if more hens are intended to be kept 
later on. 

Building the Poultry House. 

There are various ways of building henhouses, but the chief pur- 
pose of a henhouse is to keep the hens warm in cold weather. Hardly 
any reasonable expense is too much for this purpose, because to at- 
tempt to save here is like the old saw, "Save at the spigot and spend 
at the bunghole." Thousands of bushels of grain are thrown away by 
being fed to hens in cold henhouses. There are no eggs laid in a cold 
house, and no eggs for four months of the year mean a dead loss to 
the poultry raiser. Keep your fowls lively, comfortable and contented 
in cold weather and you will have solved the question of winter eggs 
for the market. 

In order to do this the house for hens should be kept at an even 
temperature. The even warmth of temperature is absolutely neces- 
sary, though some people expect hens to lay in an icehouse. We put 
storm windows and storm doors on our own houses for winter, but 
refuse to put out a cent on the henhouse. I have seen plenty of hen- 
houses with a heavy coat of frost lining the walls inside and out and 
overhead, and yet the farmer grumbled because there was so little 
market profit in hen-keeping. 

A henhouse should be built for a stove, in case of need, with a 
chimney built through the roof, high enough for a good draft, and 
also to create a good ventilation. Enclose the stove with a woven 
wire cage 7 to 8 feet from the stove. Fowls are less inclined to jump 
a wire than a board fence. A barbed wire at top is also deterrent. 
Leghorns will jump 7 or 8 feet, so that your fence must be high 
enough for that breed, if you keep it. Other fowls will only need 
about 314 or 4 feet. Coarse chunks of wood make the best fuel, as 
these furnish charcoal for the hens, and this is a very necessary thing 
for laying hens in winter. 

Care of the Interior. 

Everything in the interior of the poultry house must be so ar- 
ranged that it can be easily cleaned and be readily accessible. 

The roosting department for the hens is an enclosure placed in 
the center at least eighteen inches from the outside wall of the hen- 
house and two feet from the ground floor. The perches for the hens 
to roost on should be well seasoned, basswood or pine, peeled poles 



236 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

two to three inches in diameter and placed on frames about 14 inches 
apart and 14 inches from the dropping board. Don't fasten the roosts 
tightly, as they must be taken out often and sunned, as well as cleaned. 
Be sure to have the perches level, as then the fighting for positions is 
done away with. A hen goes to roost about four o'clock and sits until 
about eight the next morning. She is about 16 hours on the roost, 
and may be exposed to forty degrees change of temperature in that 
time. Laying departments are drawers right under the roosting de- 
partment. 

Each poultry house should be provided with dust boxes, placed 
in full sunlight, from two to three feet long and the same in width, 
and about six inches deep. These boxes should be kept at least three- 
fourths full of dry, clean, light dust or dry wood ashes for the hens to 
burrow in. The boxes should be emptied every two weeks, at least, 
and refilled with fresh dust. During the winter season, wood ashes are 
good for the hens to burrow in, especially where they are kept in dur- 
ing rainy and stormy weather. If kept dry, air-slacked lime may be 
used. 

Fresh, clean water should be kept in every poultry house, where 
the hens can help themselves. Earthern vessels are the best for this. 
Fresh, warm water is needed every day in winter, and cold water 
every day in summer. The vessel containing the water should be 
scalded out with boiling water each time, before fresh water is put in 
again. There should be a small box or trough in the poultry house, 
with charcoal broken up for the hens to eat at their leisure. 

To prevent loss from lice, let the dust in the boxes be sprinkled 
with any good insect powder until the dust is slightly tinted with the 
powder. Do this each time the boxes are emptied. 

Everything about the henhouse must be kept free from dirt and 
moisture. Give plenty of light and ventilation, sunlight especially 
being needed. Whitewashed walls and clean windows are essentials. 
Keep about six inches of sand and gravel on the floor and a bed of dry 
straw chafT frequently renewed. If this litter becomes at all damp it 
should be removed and new straw or dry leaves supplied. During the 
winter once a month is not too often for this. The roosts should be 
cleaned twice a week. Sift air-slacked lime on the dropping places 
every time after cleaning and rub the roosts with kerosene oil. Fif- 
teen minutes given every morning to a thorough cleaning of the hen- 
house will be pretty sure to give success to your campaign for a full 
egg basket. 

As May is the month for the worst trouble with lice, April is the 
time to fumigate the henhouse thoroughly. This is best done by plac- 
ing a small quantity of burning charcoal in an iron vessel. Close the 
henhouse tight and burn a lb. of sulphur in each pan. There should 
be several of these for a large henhouse and the henhouse closed 
tightly for from 2 to 4 hours. Repeat this regularly during the sum- 
mer season. By beginning early in the spring the young broods are 
more likely to be saved from the dangers of lice. If the setting hens 
are allowed to hatch out and the chickens raised by a brooder, the 
chicks ought to be clean from lice. But be sure not to fasten your 




^■'■mm. 




The safety pocket hen's nest, a protection against ail egg-destroying animals. 



POULTRY 237 

henhouse fixtures, as said before, as you can clean everything much 
better by being- able to remove them occasionally. Camphorated oil is 
good for head lice. 

Poultry Houses. 

Poultry houses can be made in almost any shape, yet for warmth 
and convenience the octagon or the round silo shape seems to me to 
be the best. To build an octagon poultry house, have the ground 
raised, or have the house placed upon high ground so that the house 
shall be kept perfectly dry at all times. To accommodate 100 hens 
make the poultry house 80 feet in circumference, that is 10 feet on 
each side of the octagon, with sills 2x4x10 feet long and 6 foot studs 
to plate of the same size and length of the sill. On the outside, ceil 
with matched rough boards, cover with building or tar paper, and then 
cover with drop siding. All this material should be of best quality 
and should be painted early for preservation. The diameter of such 
a building would be about 26 feet, and the rafters about 2x4x14 feet 
long, according to the pitch desired. These rafters are covered with 
rough boards and on these the best 3-ply rubberoid or any other good 
roofing material. Seal with matched, dry lumber the inside of all the 
outside walls, including the roof, for warmth and as a protection 
against vermin, and put a good sized paneled door on the side most 
convenient for your use, with a storm door for winter. Place double 
windows, each provided with double sash, about 28x36 inches, on the 
east and south sides of the poultry house, at an angle of about 45 
degrees, slanting in at the top, and also provided with storm windows 
for winter. 

About one-half of the distance from the base to center should be 
made another room, octagon in shape, with sills and studs for braces 
to the long rafters. These sides should be boarded up with matched 
boards to the height of about 3 feet, with doors on each side of the oc- 
tagon. Above the boarded sides common white muslin may be used. 
Put a partition made of matched lumber through the center of this 
inner octagon, thus separating the place for nests from the place for 
roosts. One section can conveniently be made for feed and this can 
be protected from the hens with a wire screen. A good sized brick 
chimney should be placed on one side of this inner octagon and ex- 
tended upward through the roof a little higher than the highest point 
of the building. This chimney should be provided with a fireplace 
and protected with a wire screen. This will serve for a ventilator and 
also for stove pipes, etc., if you should desire to cook poultry food by 
means of stoves. Warm, well ventilated buildings save about fifty 
per cent in food stufif. 

Another Way to Build the Hen House. 

Floor Plan. Lay out wall polygon with 8 (eight) corners, each 
side being eight feet long. Make cement floor four inches from bot- 
tom of sill, then fill in with dirt to bottom of sill. The purpose of 
this is to make the house rat proof and at the same time warm and 
dry. The sills should be usually 4x6, studs 2x4, seven feet long, placed 



238 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

two feet apart. For plate use 2x4 doubled. Tie the building together 
with 2x4, two feet apart, supported in the center by a 2x8. 

The upper floor should not be tight. This will allow the moisture 
to escape into the chamber. This floor ought to be covered with 
straw about two feet thick. 

The roof is made eight-cornered, the same as the building, with 
eight main rafters 12 feet long, and a 4x4 between the rafters at the 
top. Make the ventilator same as the roof. It should be about two 
feet in diameter. Then cut eight rafters to go between the main raft- 
ers and join at the top with the frame of the ventilator. Cut 16 raft- 
ers about four feet long to go between the other rafters. This will 
make a rafter every two feet all around the roof. The ventilator 
should be slatted so as to let out air and yet not let in rain. 

Windows should be placed on the southeast, south and southwest. 
Set them 6 to 8 inches from the floor. Use windows about 4 feet 10 
inches in length and any width desired. Put them on a slant by set- 
ting the top in. Make the frames 12 inches deep at top and 4 at the 
bottom. This will give the window a slant of 8 inches, and will allow 
the sun to shine on the floor and also make the house warmer. For 
winter put on storm windows the same slant as inside windows. 

Put the door in the east or west side, as desired. Make it 6x2-6. 
The inside plan consists of two parts ; the roosting place, and the 
nursery. Three feet from each corner draw a circle. Put up studs on 
this circle two feet apart, reaching to the upper floor, which is 7 feet. 
Cover this frame with cloth, either ducking or burlap. This will pre- 
vent a draft and yet make a comfortable place, and pure air is very 
important if you can get it without fowls taking cold. This can be 
done in this way. Put a partition through this circle, dividing it so 
as to give 7 feet for nursery and 5 for roosting. Make a table two feet 
high and as wide as the room, leaving a place in front to walk. Then 
make a frame with legs eighteen inches long for the roosts to rest on. 
Make the roosts the shape of the building. Underneath the roosts 
and on the front side make a trough the full length. Then fasten this 
cloth just underneath the roosts at the back side, and let it slope to 
the edge of trough and fasten firmly. The dropping from hens will 
fall on the cloth and pass to the trough, where they can be easily re- 
moved. 

Nursery. Make nests in the circular side of room by rows, if de- 
sired. The nests are to be twelve inches wide and fourteen inches 
long. See floor plan. Make a door at each end of the nest so that you 
can shut the nest up, if desired. This arrangement will be found very 
convenient at times of setting. The doors at the inside of these rooms 
will be seen in the floor plan. Put a two by ten at the top of the parti- 
tion to support the roof. In constructing this building look carefully 
at the cuts, and anyone who is handy with tools can make it. Some 
deviations might be resorted to, but on the whole it is better to follow 
plan as indicated. 

Chicken House Number 3. 

Make this house a square of 24 feet. Build it on level, dry ground, 
with good stone or brick sills, the walls 2 feet in the ground, 1 foot 



POULTRY 239 

above ground. The studding is of 2x4, and covered with heavy build- 
ing paper on the outside. Over this put a layer of ordinary well sea- 
soned boards, then a second layer of siding. Fill in with sawdust, 
packed down tight, and line with good straight edged boards. Board 
in the rafters on the inside, and fill in with dry sawdust before 
shingling. 

Put the roosting place in the east side and the laying department 
in the center. This laying section should be about 10 feet long, with 
an alley three feet wide running its length. The nest boxes will be 
built on three sides. The south side will be all glass from the sill to 
the plate, with a one-foot slant inward. Six or seven feet of height 
under the eaves is sufficient. If you build with a hipped roof four or 
five feet at the eaves is enough. In that case run the glass windows 
up to the purline plate, putting them in separate sections, from the out- 
side plate to the purline plate. The 1-foot slant will then only be from 
the sill to the outside plate. For very cold climates add storm win- 
dows for winter. The laying department being inclosed in the center, 
will be warm in winter. Arrange the laying section so that the hens 
can go into it by going into the alley or on the side. 

Chicken House No. 4. 

For the west or northw^est build this henhouse into a mound, if 
possible, facing the south or southeast. Into this dig down 3 ft., and 
back 16 ft., leaving it open to the south. Dig the enclosure 20 ft. long. 
If you put in a stone foundation for the excavation let it be dug 
straight down. But if the earth sides are left, slant the ground slightly 
to avoid caving in. Studding for this should be 2x4, sheathed up with 
building paper on the inside and ceiled on the outside with good lum- 
ber. Fill in with shavings or good sawdust. The house should be 
built 4 feet high in the eaves, which will make the total height seven 
feet, with a frontage of 20 feet. The south front should have glass 
windows with slats across on the inside to prevent the chickens from 
breaking the glass. In the fall bank up to the eaves with straw on 
the sides and bank the glass three feet high unless storm windows are 
put on. This last is the better way, as plenty of sunlight is a great 
stimulant to egg-laying. In the winter, paper and ceil to the top of 
the rafters. 

Chicken House No. 5. 

Directions for cement or square timbered winter henhouse — 
round or eight-square, with hipped roof. Lay the foundation two feet 
deep in the ground and one foot wide until above ground. Above 
ground the wall should be 8 in. wide to the plate. The floor should be 
of cement below and boards above with an air chamber of two inches 
between the two floors. The board floor should be of oae-inch well 
seasoned lumber. The walls should be seven feet high from the 
foundation to the plate. Make the outside wall of cement, studded 
with one by two inch timbers, and lathed and plastered, the plates 
two by eight inches, and the rafters two by four inches. A ventilator 
three or four inches square should be placed in the center of the roof. 



240 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

with a slide at the bottom of the ventilator so that it can be closed in 
cold weather. 

This henhouse can also be built of either four or six inch square 
timbers, laid one upon the other, like a wall, from the foundation to 
the plate. This timbered henhouse should also be lathed and plas- 
tered, and the outside covered with good matched siding- and painted. 
Put the roosting department within eighteen inches of the floor and 
drop a blanket around the roosts after the hens have settled for the 
night. 

Another Plan No. 6. 

Another plan for a henhouse divided into two parts, one for roost- 
ing and one for a scratching pen, can be followed as below : 

1. Make the house twelve feet wide, running north and south 
twenty-four feet, with no windows on the west side, but have that 
side and the north end absolutely straight. Partition across ten feet 
from the north end for roosting pen. 

2. Have both windows in the east side, one in the roosting room 
and one in the scratching room. 

3. Place the perches along the west side of the roosting room so 
they will be as far away from the window as possible. 

4. See that the roof is low, especially on the west side — no 
more than four and one-half feet from the floor, and no more than two 
and one-half feet above the perches, so as to save all the animal heat 
at night. 

5. Use 4-foot posts on the back side and 6-foot on the front, with 
a 6-inch space between walls enclosing the entire building. Pack this 
space with fine hay or flax straw to make the house dry, as well as 
warm. Use stone or brick for a foundation and have a cement floor 
regardless of cost. 

A St. Paul Chicken House No. 7. 

One poultryman of St. Paul, Minn., reports that his 25 incubator- 
raised hens are kept in a house 20 feet by 6 feet and 10 feet high. Two 
feet from the ceiling are steam pipes that run from a near building. 
These are covered with asbestos and on these, which are just warm, 
the chickens roost at night. Yet this poultryman got, some midwinter 
days, only one egg, and some days none. Evidently heat was not the 
greatest thing in the world for those hens so far as winter laying goes. 

Did these hens scratch enough for their living and would it not 
have been better to give them their warm mash in the afternoon, and 
season it with some stimulant such as cayenne? 

The Crookston, Minn., Plan No. 8 
A recent bulletin on poultry raising, sent out from the Crookston, 
Minnesota, Experiment Station, where fowls must be housed five 
months of the year, recommends a poultry house with lap siding, two 
thicknesses tarred paper, matched flooring, an air space between stud- 
dings, filled with planer shavings or flax straw, and cheap boarding in 
inside, being three thicknesses of lumber and two of paper, besides air 
chamber. A loft overhead, filled with straw, renewed every year, 
makes a dry house. 




Perspective, south exposure of Octagonal Chicken House. 

N 




Ground floor plan of Octagonal Chicken House. 



POULTRY 241 

House No. 9. 

All of the above plans are undoubtedly good for mild climates, 
but for the severe changes of the north and northwest special care in 
arrangement and construction is necessary. The writer, using the 
following system during one of the severest seasons of the north- 
west — that of 1911-12 — procured, without artificial heat, 18 eggs 
from 28 hens per day all winter, while his neighbors did not get 
any at all. One man in particular put up a modern house at the cost 
of $700 and did not get any eggs for 3j/4 months. 

The first thing I considered in building from the following plan 
was location. This should insure perfect drainage, protection from 
north winds, and a southeast or southwest slope. The next aim was 
a thoroughly warm house, built with the idea of conserving heat and 
turning frost from every part of the building. Artificial heat does 
not always give the best results, but the method that follows I believe 
will insure plenty of eggs in zero weather for the winter poultry 
house. 

In putting in the foundation for the building it is essential that 
it be laid below the frost line, probably about 3 feet. This not only 
turns the frost, but it keeps rats and weazels from getting into the 
house. Poured concrete is good for the foundation, but should not 
be run above the level of the floor, as in my experience in cold cli- 
mates concrete is no good for any kind of farm stock, for the reason 
that it is too damp, cold and frosty. The best floor for the building 
is earth, packed solid and raised several inches above the highest sur- 
rounding soil. As the sun is the best disinfectant the windows of the 
house should be so arranged that it will shine in on all of the floor 
space during the day. For this reason the windows should be placed 
on the south side and should occupy almost the entire side, extending 
from about 18 inches from the floor to within the same distance from 
the rafter plate. 

Upon the foundation sills 6x6 or 3-2x6 pieces are used. For the 
purline plates that the rafters sit on 2x6's may be used. The height 
of the framework is 6 feet from the top of the foundation to the 
top of the rafter plate. It is well to put a double thickness of 
matched plank on the outside of the framework, between which is 
placed some paper or roofing. Tarred felt, in my experience, is not 
good because it does not last and during hot weather makes a bad 
odor. Rubberoid or similar material is good. The inside plank should 
be run up and down from plate to sill or run diagonally. Thoroughly 
seasoned lumber should be used. In finishing ofT the inside, tack on 
the framework a thickness of rubberoid and then over this a layer of 
well matched siding. This may be painted or whitewashed. This 
arrangement gives an air space all around. A good roof is the hip 
roof, but a simpler and cheaper one is the ordinary lean-to roof. 

One of the most essential points is to keep the temperature as 
even as possible day and night, between 60 and 70 degrees. For this 
purpose it will be necessary to contrive some simple arrangement 
that will substitute during the night, the heat that exercise and sun 
provided during the day. To allow the fowls to roost in the same 



242 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

pen they have been exercising- in during the day without extra cover- 
ing is not wise — it is not the cold days, but the cold nights, that keeps 
the hens from laying. To this end I have contrived and used the 
interior roosting quarters with good success. This is simply a room 
placed in the center of the house running from the floor to the ceil- 
ing, three sides of which are of matched boards and the fourth side 
open. It does not need to be very large, its size depending upon 
the number of chickens kept in the house. The best practice calls 
for from 20 to 30 hens in one house. The open side faces the win- 
dows, so that the sun reaches e\ery niche and corner — from the 
top of this is hung a curtain which is lowered at night as soon as all 
the birds have gone to roost. This arrangement combines sanitary 
conditions with warmth and comfort. It provides a double air space 
and prevents any drafts from striking the birds. Also the body heat 
is retained and the curtain acts as an equalizer of temperature without 
creating any drafts. The roosting poles should be placed about 30 
inches from the floor. This apartment must be cleaned not less than 
once a week and the poles rubbed with kerosene oil. A sprinkling of 
air-slaked Hme in this apartment is an excellent help toward cleanli- 
ness. It also helps to absorb any moisture which may form. In the 
morning, between 8 and 9 o'clock, the curtain can be drawn and the 
chickens allowed to go out into the feeding department. The first 
leed should be a hot mash, composed of two parts ground corn, one 
part ground oats, one-half part of wheat bran stirred up in boiling 
water. The next feed is wheat and oats mixed together and placed on 
the scratching floor in straw or hay. At mid-day a cabbage hung up 
by a cord for them to pick at or clover hay or sprouted oats — some- 
thing green is very important. At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon hot 
cracked corn and oats is fed. Have always available for their use 
sand or grit, and oyster shell and charcoal. 

Room and cleanliness are very essential things to be observed if 
maximum egg production is sought. Each hen should have from 
6 to 8 square feet of space to do her best. This with light, sunshine 
and air without drafts will accomplish wonders. Vermin in chick- 
ens is the cause of greater mortality than all other agencies combined; 
to prevent this the house should be fumigated about three times a 
year ; once in the spring as soon as the weather is warm, then during 
the latter part of June, and then toward the middle of September. 
The roosts and drop boards should be movable so they can be taken 
out and cleaned every day and then dusted with lime or hard plaster, 
known as gypsum. It is a good plan to whitewash twice a year. The 
kind of dust to use varies with conditions. If the hens are kept 
indoors, dry wood ashes are good. Road dust, however, is the safest 
insect powder known and should be used where practicable. The 
boxes ought to be emptied once a week. 

Ventilation. 

For all henhouses provide some kind of ventilation. Remem- 
ber that a cold, dry house is better than a warm, damp one. If a trace 
of foul odor can be detected on entering the henhouse or any moisture, 



POULTRY 243 

open doors and windows at once, at least a little, being careful to 
avoid drafts. Cloth curtains and muslin fronts are quite satisfactory 
as means to provide fresh air without drafts. Remember also that it 
is not so necessary to house your Hock very warmly during- the day, 
if the hens are kept out of dampness and out of drafts, but the night 
quarters must be warm. Dropping the curtain in front of the roosts 
every night will give the extra warmth needed then, but only proper 
construction will keep a henhouse dry. A good device for helping out 
the ventilation of a poultry house consists of a door frame in which 
two crosswise panels of oiled muslin are inserted, one near the top of 
the door and the other, a little wider, at the bottom. Between these 
two panels is a cased and hinged window, protected by a wire screen. 
The window can be opened as much or as little as desired. 

The following ventilator is simple and readily applied to houses 
already up, which need better air. A shaft is made by nailing together 
four boards, each a foot wide. This shaft is run straight through the 
top of the house, and up a couple of feet. A cap keeps out the snow. 
Some rest_the cap on four little pillars. Others have a cap running 
to a point and starting from two sides of shaft, the other two sides 
being left open. This shaft should come down to within six or eight 
inches of the floor and. of course, be open at the bottom. Care must 
be taken that the roof is properly tinned around the ventilator where 
the latter passes through, so there will be no leaking of the roof. This 
central ventilator is more in the way than those built in wall, but actu- 
ally draws better, as I know by experience of both. A built-in shaft 
should be in a south wall or in a partition, to avoid chill. 

The Scratching Room. 

A light and sunny scratching room for fowls is a requisite for the 
cold climate, with at least a foot of straw on the floor. But even when 
the weather is very cold the fowls can be let out in a scratching yard 
protected by a hedge or even by any makeshift for a fence and cover- 
ing, such as old boards and farm yard litter of straw or cornstalks. 
Get the fowls out some way, at least for a short time each day, and 
take that time to clean up the henhouse. But do not turn them out 
on cold snow, but on litter. If one has the space to give, catch crops 
sown in the poultry yards and scratching sheds prove of benefit in 
the matter of green food. Rye sown in the fall will give plenty of 
accessible green food in the early summer. It is best, if possible, how- 
ever, not to keep poultry on the same ground year after year, to which 
I may add that after a hen is two years old her room is better than 
her company on any real poultry farm. 

A California poultry breeder recommends dry leaves for litter in 
a scratching yard, as they are too light to pack easily. In that locality, 
especially southern California, where other litter is not always avail- 
able, spading or plowing up the yards is a method used as a medium 
for raking grain foods into the soil. By this plan the soil has to be 
frequently worked over. If leaves or straw be used, eight or ten 
inches of depth is not too much of an application. The hens get vigor- 
ous exercise in such litter. 



244 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Have your scratching yard as large as possible for the farm hen 
that runs at large is well known to lay the most eggs, as a general 
rule. 

A Cloth Pocket Hen's Nest. 

This form of nest is good for hens that eat their own eggs. Take 
a piece of burlap, or any strong cloth or cloth wire and tack it on 
the inside of the box for the hen so that the bottom will be six inches 
deep. Add to this, before it is tacked to the nest, a pocket in the shape 
of a trough, along which the eggs will roll to one side of the box. 
Keep straw in the bottom of the box, upon which the eggs will slide 
out from the pocket. Hang this pocket with a good slant and make 
the hole at the end through which the egg passes abundantly large. 
Shape the nest itself like a water bowl. This nest arrangement will 
also prevent animals from stealing the eggs. 

One woman poultry raiser says she has found small wooden 
boxes, procured from the grocery stores and nailed up in the nesting 
department, more convenient than regularly built nests. They are 
easily taken down for cleaning and when hens get broody they can be 
given eggs in these boxes to which they are wonted, and covered with 
a board or a hinged cover, thus insuring seclusion and a tranquil 
mind to biddy. Such movable nests are also useful for breaking up 
the sitting desire at the wrong time. 

All nests should be simply constructed and easily moved and 
cleaned, and, if possible, put in a dark place to prevent egg eat- 
ing. If placed under the dropping board, with a hinge door in 
front to lift up when securing eggs, and an alley in the rear where 
biddy can sneak in to lay her egg, the arrangement is ideal if it can 
be kept free from lice. A careful painstaking poultryman may keep 
it so. but as a rule being so near the roosting quarters and being dark 
makes it a favorite place for the accumulation of mites. Nests that 
can be carried outdoors, whitewashed, sprayed and aired at intervals 
are preferable for busy people. The wire nests sold to hang on the 
wall are not liked by hens, as they lack stability; for biddy has her 
own ideas about nests and will generally desert the finest nests that 
can be built and lay her eggs in a barrel if she can find one. In fact, 
several hens will sit around and wait for the barrel when half the 
nests are empty. 

Boxes, therefore, set on platforms, or hooked to walls, may be 
considered most suited to the hen's tastes. Make the edges of the 
boxes high enough so the eggs will not roll out and get broken. Of 
course, the platform boxes, not coming in contact with the walls are 
not so likely to harbor mites. Cheese boxes make good nests, as they 
have no corners. For square nests those about eleven by fourteen 
inches, inside measurement, are large enough for Wyandottes or Ply- 
mouth Rocks. Other breeds in proportion. Don't make the boxes so 
deep that the hen will jump down on the eggs and break them. Have 
covers, open daytimes and closed nights. Secondhand boxes from the 
stores are satisfactory. Keep your nests separate by all means. 

Let hens set outdoors during the spring and summer season. A 
very common way is to furnish biddy a barrel laid on its side in a 



POULTRY 245 

secluded place and ballasted so that it will not roll. This makes a 
good place for either hens or turkeys to lay or set in. Make the nest 
perfectly fresh every time, and it is a good plan to whitewash the bar- 
rel inside and out. Put about 4 inches of fresh earth in the barrel and 
on top of this make the nest of straw or other material. At night 
place a board in front of the nest to keep out rats or other egg thieves. 
It is well to sell non-layers in the spring, before chickens fill the 
market and bring down the price. Eggs, also, are lower in the spring, 
and the new broods will need the room of the old hens. A good way 
to tell a non-layer is to see whether the rear bones are wide apart or 
close together at the points below the tail feathers. If they are close 
together that biddy is better for market. 

Laying and Setting. 

Six hundred eggs are said to be due from a small fowl. A hen 
lays about 200 eggs in the first year of laying. In the next three years 
she totals about 370. In the last four of her egg-producing years she 
lays a little over 200 eggs. A hen that will lay 200 eggs a year is 
scarce ; and scarcer than hen's teeth is the fowl that lays an egg a day. 
But hens do break all records once in a while by the egg a day method, 
while some breeders report 240 eggs a year. 

The average hen should lay 150 eggs a year. If she does she will 
have produced two pounds of pure carbonated lime. This shows how 
much fowls must depend either upon their food or their grit for suc- 
cessful results. But the average hen does not lay 150 eggs a year. 
Half that number would be nearer a fair estimate. 

In choosing hens choose American breeds for their meat, but 
Asiatics for eggs. Glossy plumaged trim fowls pay best. Breed from 
tested layers of thoroughbreds. For winter layers set some hens in 
March and April for next winter layers. Early spring pullets are the 
best for winter layers. Get the chicks for early layers all hatched by 
May 15 or before. As one poultry man declares early hatched chick- 
ens, kept growing on grass, cottage cheese, wheat, ground bone and 
pudding, with shorts, bran, bean meal and oil cake to balance the corn 
meal, get to laying before cold weather and keep right on. Late 
hatched ones may get size but not maturity. They will not start lay- 
ing in face of cold weather, hence go over till next spring. 

Then set some hens in July and August so as to have late pullets 
for the next summer. Late hatched pullets are always the best next 
summer layers. Hens are a good deal like cows in giving milk in 
some respects. Some hens lay eggs almost the year around, while 
others only lay a few dozen. The eggs should be saved from the best 
layers for setting, as the chick from a good laying hen makes the best 
layer. 

Varieties. 

The single comb Brown Leghorn, which is a small feeder, laying 
well in the summer on small rations, is the best for daily profit in 
eggs. They mature early also, and while not sitters, by using an in- 
cubator or Plymouth Rocks it will be possible to hatch winter layers 
sometimes as early as June or July. In any case, breed only from the 



246 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

choicest of your flock and improve it each year by new blood. While 
mongrel stock, under the conditions of big farms, will sometimes bring 
good results, the best financial returns come from those strictly large 
commercial plants where pure breeds are maintained. Leghorns, 
Minorcas and Hamburgs are probably the greatest producers of eggs. 
Neither of these breeds is adapted to close ranging. Brahmas and 
Cochins, both fair layers, thrive well in small quarters. The Light 
Brahmas have many good qualities and, together with the varieties of 
Wyandottes, are popular. The White, Buff and Silver Duckwing 
Leghorn are excellent layers the year around. For the large farmer, 
where hundreds of hens are kept, and their food is raised on the farm, 
the small breeds of hens are the best. 

The Wyandottes have about seven varieties. Of these the Sil- 
vers, the Blacks, the Silver Penciled and one strain of the Whites are 
said, by commercial poultrymen, to develop, both in meat qualities 
and egg-production, more than a month sooner than will the other 
strains of the same breed. But most poultry breeders do not advise 
that too much stress be put upon this matter of getting early eggs. 
Don't let your pullets lay until they get to be a good size. No matter 
if they are from February hatches and can go upon the range in May. 
If they are under-sized, keep them by themselves, and give them a 
non-stiijiulating diet and a small range for exercise. 

The Orpingtons are fine for market sellers, their meat being un- 
usually delicate. Remember that a very full-feathered breed indicates 
poorer layers. Rapid feathering, however, shows a quickly maturing 
and bountiful layer. 

Good Winter Layers. 

As I have said before, pullets hatched in March make the best 
winter layers, with yearlings next. Spring hatched pullets should be 
placed in permanent quarters in October. If you use the colony sys- 
tem do not exceed flocks of two dozen. By the first of November they 
ought to begin laying if well situated and treated. Be sure they have 
thoroughly clean quarters, whitewashed entirely, with cut straw in 
the nests, leaves on the floor and any good disinfectant such as coal 
ashes, plaster, etc., beneath the perches. Ashes sprinkled in the nests 
before putting in straw, also two or three moth balls put in, will help 
to keep away lice. Here let me say that a bucket spray pump is the 
best thing with which to whitewash the henhouse. 

Don't cross breeds, as you get then inferior fowls. Inbreeding 
always reduces the size of the hen. A good way to improve a flock of 
hens, so says a practical poultry keeper, "Is to get a pure blood cock, 
breeding him two years, and then get another of the same breed, but 
not related in blood. Do this for five or six years and you will have 
a flock for all practical purposes as good as it would be of pure bred 
stock." 

"Older mothers for quality, but younger ones for quantity." Lay- 
ing qualities may be transmitted through male birds, and males from 
the best laying hens can be used for breeders to the great advantage 
of the flocks. Such pullets, heavily fed, will respond by greater pro- 
duction, but you can't expect that a mother who is a poor layer will 



POULTRY 247 

be likely to have any other chicks than of her own sort. In careful 
breeding lies the great secret of poultrying, and in selecting a male 
for the next year, pick out the one with a broad deep body and which 
stands with legs well apart. The breast should be broad, deep and 
well rounded out so as to present a meaty appearance. Birds of this 
kind are worth many times the value of the common roosters gener- 
ally used and if they are purely bred males, will reproduce their 
meaty flesh in their olYspring. The shape and vigor of a breeding 
male is of much more importance than excessive size. The medium 
sized bird is nearly always the best breeder. Nor do breeders of poul- 
try pay much heed to the size of the eggs for setting, or incubation. 
They ask about the strain of good qualities that the egg represents. 

Setting Hens. 

In buying eggs for hatching, always rest eggs from a distance a 
few hours before setting. See that the hatching hen is free from para- 
sites, whether scale insects on the legs, body lice or mites. No kero- 
sene or any oil or grease should come in contact with the eggs or be 
used around the nests. A packing box 15 in. long and wide, and 16 or 
18 in. high makes a nice nest. Arrange a sliding or hinged door so 
that the hen can be confined to the nest at will. The top of the box 
should be covered with cotton and there should be openings in the 
back for ventilation. Whatever you make the nest of plan to fit it as 
nearly as possible to the shape of the hen's body. One poultry breeder 
I know makes a nest from a piece of dry turf from 12 to 15 in. square, 
cut thin in the center. Either this or earth makes a good nest, being 
easy to shape, moist and a non-conductor of heat. Cover the earth 
with good straw, well broken. Straw cut with a machine is too 
sharply pointed, while hay gives a lure for mice to hunt for seeds and 
the hen is likely to scratch for these same seeds and break the eggs. 
To keep away lice and other vermin, mix tobacco stems well with the 
straw and dust the whole thoroughly with common, cheap, powdered 
sulphur from the druggists. The heat from the hen's body causes the 
sulphur to give off a smell that keeps lice, etc., away off. This method 
enables one to start several setters to hatching at the same time and 
in the same pen. 

Put the hen in the nest at night, after thoroughly dusting with 
insect powder or sulphur. Shut her in and do not disturb until the 
next afternoon. Then put dishes of whole corn, grit and water in the 
pen, and take out the hen for feeding, leaving her to return to her nest 
at will. When the nests are examined at night, give to all the hens 
that seem quiet and contented, from ten to fifteen eggs, according to 
the size of the hen. 

The hens must take a daily run. Feed all at the same time, taking 
gently from the nests all that do not leave them. They will form the 
habit in a day or so and come out when the door is opened to eat, 
drink and have a dust bath. Whole corn is the best food. See that 
the hen returns to her own nest and examine nests while the hens are 
feeding to see whether eggs have been broken. If they have, wash 
the soiled eggs in tepid water, to prevent the clogging of pores of the 



248 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

shells. Do not handle further, except to test the eggs on the 8th or 
9th day of incubation. If very warm and dry during incubation, it is 
best to moisten the earth around the outside of the nest boxes on the 
18th day of incubation. This supplied moisture will further soften 
the membrane inside the shell of the egg and permit its ready separa- 
tion by the chick. Dust the hen thoroughly while sitting and never 
let her attempt to hatch two broods in succession. If a hatch of pur- 
chased eggs disappoints, the sender should at once be notified and 
given the whole history of incubation, so that if the buyer is not at 
fault the sender will duplicate. As the buyer purchases the eggs in 
the hope of getting full-blooded stock cheaper than he can by purchas- 
ing birds the inference is in his favor that he would use every reason- 
able care to get the value of his investment. The sender is therefore 
likely to feel his obligation to duplicate if a satisfactory record is sent 
him. 

Laying hens are great drinkers, therefore give warm water in 
plenty and keep a few rusty iron nails in the drinking vessels. 

Don't give red pepper or other egg forcers to laying hens. It is 
most likely to irritate the digestive organs and set up inflammation 
there. Hens with good appetites and full crops are usually good lay- 
ers and also healthy hens. 

Soft food and mashes may be fed occasionally, but do not have 
the mashes sloppy. The mash should be slightly cooked and steamed 
and allowed to become almost cold before feeding. 

The Incubator Chicken. 

If you mean to carry on poultry raising on a large scale, let me 
advise, however, the use of incubators, brooders and all the modern 
aids to prolific egg-hatching and fowl growth. Science has got ahead 
of nature here in the past ten years. A recent visit to the ostrich farm 
at Coronado, California, showed this very plainly. Get a standard 
incubator, run it according to directions, and you will get better re- 
turns on an investment in the business of poultry production than by 
any of the natural methods of the average farm, provided you have 
hundreds of poultry. 

Mr. E. G. Wycoff, of New York state, and Mr. Blanchard, late of 
the same state, have become independently rich from the raising of 
poultry. Farmers in general should keep at least five or six times as 
much poultry as they do. Poultry always brings better prices than 
pork and can be produced as cheaply. Raise more poultry and fewer 

pigs. _ , ., 

In raising chickens with the mcubator you are fortunate if you 
raise 75 per cent of the chickens hatched. Follow the directions that 
accompany the machine exactly and don't try any new tricks with it 
on your own responsibility. Be sure to hang a thermometer in the 
brooder and keep it at 90 degrees. Don't open the door of the incu- 
bator while they are hatching, but leave the chickens in the incubator 
for at least two days after the first of them hatched. Transfer as rap- 
idly as possible from the incubator to the brooder, and don't feed any- 
thing before the end of the third day, and this should be a light meal. 



POULTRY 249 

Feed three times the next day, morning-, noon and night ; but feed 
lightly. You can increase the number of light feeds to five per day 
by the beginning- of the second week. Then feed all that they will 
eat up clean. Clean the lamp in the brooder twice a day, and keep it 
very clean. If you keep brooder in a shed, away from the other fowls, 
you can keep the chickens warmer, free from lice and get much better 
and longer service from the brooder. 

One word of advice about incubators is much needed. Buy your 
machine about a month before you want it and run it for a time in an 
empty state, so that you can become accustomed to the workings. And 
another word of advice is to allow just about twice as much space for 
each chicken as the manufacturer allows. Keep your brooder clean 
between seasons, don't let old hens use it to roost in, and wean your 
young chickens away from it by substituting some warm box in its 
place, which they will take to as a home. The best eggs for incubator 
service are those which are of medium size, pointed, have a smooth 
and finished shell and are neither from pullets nor very old hens. One 
successful incubator raiser says she hatched from Asiatics in March, 
American breeds in April, and Leghorns and Minorcas in May. Try 
to get heat upon the chickens from above, just as the hen gives it to 
them. Make the "hover" warm in some way. 

In a recent number of a farm journal I found the following sug- 
gestion for utilizing an old incubator. "B. R. E." said: 

"If you have a hot water incubator that has given out, don't throw 
it away as useless. Take off the top of it, take out the tank, measure 
it accurately and send for a new tank. Put that in place, screw on 
the top and your incubator is as good as new and at about one-fourth 
the cost of a new one. Now take your old tank, make a box of nice 
dry, clear lumber, that is long enough to take in the tank and the 
heater, and quite a bit wider than the tank. Make it about twelve 
inches high. Make a smaller box, just the size of the tank, with only 
a bottom and one side and ends, to slide under the tank. Nail a nar- 
row strip the length of the long box, as far from one side as the width 
of the tank, tack onto this strips of old soft flannel, then cover the 
entire affair with a cover that can be removed if necessary, and you 
have a very good brooder for early chicks. 

"It can be warmed by the same kind of a lamp that was used to 
run it as an incubator. If the tank at sides and top be covered with 
asbestos paper, which can be bought in large sheets and cut to suit, 
and the heater wrapped in the asbestos it would remove all uneasiness 
as to fire. If the tank is one of those that has a tube through the cen- 
ter to form a draft for the lamp, the top of the heater may be covered 
by a close-fitting disc of tin. In the other kind, a bit of tin laid over 
that portion of the heater on which the regulator damper rests will 
send the heat into the tank." 

The Hen Hatched Chick. 

Don't feed hen hatched young chicks for thirty-six hours at least. 
Steel cut Quaker oats is good for them fed in its raw, dry form. There 
should be a vessel near by with water, but great care must be exer- 



250 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

cised not to let them overdrink when feeding- them. Other good foods 
are raw eggs, thickened with bread crumbs, cracked wheat, johnny- 
cake, baked beans, sweet cut bone, bread soaked in milk and then 
wrung out dry, dry crumbs, curds that are not ropy, lettuce, chopped 
onions, eggs boiled one-half hour and well minced, mixed millet seed 
and wheat, and later cracked corn. Dry food is safest. Cooked food 
makes them grow faster. Milk is the best drink for chicks. They 
should have plenty of charcoal and sand and grit, and plenty of fine 
cut lawn grass. 

Never feed grass that has soured in piles to the chicks in hot 
weather — but see that healthy chicks get a little fresh grass every day. 
Substituting scalded milk for water often corrects loose bowels, but 
this feeding should not be kept at too long, as it is finally constipating. 
Warm skim milk is very valuable for young chickens, and for this 
reason it would pay any small farmer who has 8 or 10 cows to invest 
in a good separator and keep his skim milk at home ior his young 
stock and poultry. As separators come down in price this practice 
will become more common on the farm. 

A very useful plan for keeping grit in front of chickens, and 
which can be made easily, is the device of Robert Colombe, of Little 
Falls, Minnesota. Take a common salt barrel, cut a hole in one side 
near the bottom of the barrel large enough to insert a cigar box. Put 
this in half way, and fasten so that it slants a little toward the out- 
side. Fill the barrel with gravel, cover well, and set so that the fowls 
will get the grit automatically. By this means they will always have 
their supply at hand until the barrel is empty. And don't forget to 
keep a box of crushed oyster shells where chickens can help them- 
selves. Country store keepers nearly all keep these on hand. 

Coal ashes not too finely sifted make good grit for chickens. 
Hens will swallow with evident relish jagged cinders the size of a 
marble. 

Broken crockery is also excellent grit. Pounded up fine it is es- 
pecially relished by young chicks. 

A good device for watering very young chickens is a trough that 
can be used by the hens and chickens alike, without any danger of 
drowning the chicks in it. Take three boards and nail together to 
make a trough, putting boards across the end to make it watertight. 
Bore holes about 1^ in. apart each way in a fourth board that will 
just float inside the trough. The young chickens will jump on the 
float and get the water they need, while the old fowls can drink as 
usual, standing on the ground. 

For a drinking vessel for chickens try also this method, the Geo. 
Howard "fountain" : 

Invert a deeper tin can into a potted-beef or fish can, or other 
shallow tin, with diameter an inch or two larger than that of the 
deeper can. Bore an awl hole into the side of the inverted can, about 
a quarter of an inch below where the edge of the shallow tin comes. 
By dipping these together into a pail of water, filling both while under 
water and inverting the taller can into the other tin, you have a day's 
supply. The shallow tin will be full as long as water remains in the 



POULTRY 251 

other tin. Give cool, not cold water, or warm milk. If chicks wet 
themselves much, remove the drink between meals. 

Be sure to turn over chicken coops after rains. 

Late hatched chicks should be wintered alone, as they require 
good care and warm, clear, well ventilated quarters. The early 
hatched chicks should begin to lay in October and lay all winter and 
early spring. They also are generally fat at the age of 10 or 11 months 
and will bring the top price in the market or, better still, may be sold 
to those who desire to improve their flock of hens at a good price. 

Chickens for broilers should be in the market very early in the 
spring. Any yellow-legged bird that matures early and is, ready for 
the market in six or eight weeks is all right as to breed. At that age 
they are small, juicy and plump, and there is a good market demand 
for them. Don't try to dress them, but give them plenty of room in 
shipping and they will be in first rate order when they reach their 
market. 

The Feeding of Poultry. 

There is no ideal ration for all flocks, and to know the suitable 
foods essential is one of the most important problems of the poultry 
raiser. The farmer who can grow all the variety of rations needed 
for hens upon his own farm, except, perhaps, some of the mineral mat- 
ter, has not to meet some of the problems of the commercial poultry 
raiser, and is saved a great deal of the initial expense of starting a 
paying poultry business. 

If the poultry are to do well they must have some green food, 
grain food, animal food and mineral matter daily. A load of green 
and grain food daily will not compensate for a lack of animal and min- 
eral matter, neither will a surplus of the latter two make amends for 
a shortage of the former two. It is the happy combination of these 
four classes of foods that causes the hens to lay eggs of quality and 
quantity and to take on wholesome, well-flavored flesh. Nor is the 
policy of feeding fowls about half what they want to eat so common 
as it used to be. It pays to feed liberally. The fowl that eats the 
most, if fed proper rations, is likely to be the most profitable. 

But fowls vary in their appetites from day by day, and according 
to conditions. If you have a wiry, active Leghorn you can feed it to 
the limit — but big, sluggish fowls of that breed need judgment as to 
unlimited corn or barley. Hens laying rapidly eat considerable more 
than those of the same breed and age not laying to any great extent. 
Pullets in jull laying will consume relatively more feed than mature 
hens in a state of idleness. Fowls of one breed will eat more food 
than those of another breed. 

The question of feeding depends also to some extent upon the 
weather. To feed as liberally of corn when the weather is warm as 
when the thermometer is hovering about the zero point is a mistake. 
Corn is essentially a warmth producer, and should be fed freely only 
during cold weather. It is a good plan to make the last meal of the 
day, fed about an hour before twilight, one of whole or cracked corn, 
for hens should go to roost at night with a full crop, and therefore the 
afternoon or evening meal should be a substantial one. The earlier 



252 



WHAT I KNOW ABOUTFARMING 



the birds are fed in the morning the better, and this meal should be of 
mixed grains, scattered in the two-foot litter of the henhouse floor, 
but varied often as to the mixture. 

Too many would-be poultrymen give their fowls the same old 
ration of one or two dry grains month after month, and are dismayed 
that their fowls do not produce more. Vary the ration as much as 
possible. By way of variety, occasionally add another kind of grain, 
such as millet seed, kaffir corn, buckwheat, sunflower seeds, or beans 
and peas. Fowls will scratch all day long in the litter after whole 
grain. 

Crop Rotation For Poultry. 

Most valuable advice to small farmers was recently given by 
Miss Ida E. Tilson, a writer in Farm, Stock and Home. How to util- 
ize a few acres in the interests of poultry breeding was her text. 

"At the root of poultry success," she named as food essentials, 
"clover hay cut young and often, a variety of fresh vegetables, sun- 
flower seeds in the head, and wheat and oats in the bundle, for the 
hens themselves to thresh, with the resulting straw bedding." But 
as these are not always or often in the market a system of a four-year 
crop rotation was outlined by Miss Tilson. I give Miss Tilson's chart 
below, believing it to be a most scientific and practical arrangement 
for the small farmer to follow. Some movable fence will be needed. 
Woven wire fastened to sharp stakes and rolled up for removal or 
storage is used by Miss Tilson : 

Field 1 Field 2 Field 3 Field 4 

Clover Clover Hoed 

1st Year Pasture Hay Crops Grain 

Clover I-Toed Clover 

2d Year Hay Crops Grain Pasture 

Hoed Clover Clover 

3d Year Crops Grain Pasture Hay 

Clover Clover Hoed 

4th Year Grain Pasture Hay Crops 

Mr. T. E. Orr, a well known poultry raiser of Minnesota, once 
prepared for a farm journal the following table. The amounts named 
are for forty-five hens and are supposed to keep them for one year. 
The total is 3,600 pounds, which would cost him $36, an average of 80 
pounds of food per hen, at a cost of 80 cents each : 

300 lbs. corn $1,87 

600 lbs. oats 6.00 

400 lbs. wheat 4.00 

300 lbs. kaffir or sorghum seed 1.87 

400 lbs. bran 3.00 

400 lbs. clover 3.00 

300 lbs. beef scrap, meat meal, or dried blood 8.00 

400 lbs. grit 2.00 

300 lbs. oyster shell 2.25 

200 lbs. cut bone 4.00 

It must be remembered, however, that present day prices are con- 
siderably higher than these. 



POULTRY 253 

The Warm Mash. 

There are so many different times advocated for feeding the warm 
mash to hens that the best advice to give on this point is to experi- 
ment with your hens in your own locality and surroundings before 
deciding what way gives the best results. The modern theory seems 
to incline toward dry mash feeding, but a hot mash in the middle of 
the day is generally advised for hens in a cold climate. Dry food in 
the morning to keep the hens warm, a hot mash at noon feed in a long 
trough (which should be kept scrupulously clean), and in which the 
ground bone can be mixed and thus more evenly distributed, and 
whole grain enough in the litter at night so that "they will go to bed 
with a full crop." 

At the Minnesota Experiment Farm the following mash is rec- 
ommended for the farmer's hens : Equal parts of finely ground corn, 
oats, bran or shorts mixed with about 10 per cent of cooked meat, 
green cut bone or beef scraps. Mix these foods up dry and mix in 
thoroughly one-third their bulk of steeped clover leaves, or finely cut 
clover, which has previously been scalded by pouring hot water on it 
and covering it with a sack. The clover to be steeped about 12 hours 
before using. 

Another mixture, used at the Crookston Poultry Farm, is made 
of: 

200 pounds bran. 

100 pounds shorts. 

100 pounds ground corn. 

100 pounds ground oats. 

100 pounds beef scraps. 
10 pounds charcoal. 

Moisten this mixture with water a little when feeding it, but 
"don't make it sloppy." 

Various Methods of Feeding. 

My own methods of feeding poultry, while not varying greatly 
from the foregoing, have some few changes — enough to make me be- 
lieve that my readers, like the fowls, knowing that variety is the 
spice of life, will wish to read them. I should, by the way, put ground 
feed in hoppers fastened at the side of the wall of the poultry house. 
If this is not convenient, then use troughs. In summer, it must be 
remembered, fowls do not need vegetable food if they' range at all. 
But in winter feed three times a day ; once, at least, with a warm 
mash made of wheat bran, ground oats and a little corn meal. The 
noon feed can be of wheat and oats alone. In the evening add shelled 
corn, ground bone occasionally, or meat and milk. The noon feed 
should be mixed with fine straw^ leaves or clover chafif. As I have 
said before, also plenty of cabbage. The best way to feed this is to 
hang it up by the roots in the henhouse about 5 or 6 incties from the 
floor. 

Remember to feed meat or lard in winter once a day ; also ground 
bone, allowing about one-half ounce to each hen. This bone meal, 
ground by a bone cutter, is only necessary about twice a week, and 



254 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

caution must be used that no bowel trouble results. The bone is only 
a kind of tonic, stimulating the digestive organs of the fowl, as well 
as furnishing phosphates, nitrogen and lime for the shells of the eggs. 
A little meat attached to the bone will not hurt, if it is fed the same 
day it is cut. But tainted meat or bones or boiled or bleached bones 
should not be fed, as these have lost their feeding value. It should 
be added, as to the general method of feeding hens, never feed more 
than will be eaten up clean. Corn is a great help in the diet for hens, 
because it keeps them warm in cold weather. 

These are my special recommendations for a good, ample diet for 
laying hens in winter, but there are other poultry keepers who give 
different formulas. One Wisconsin farmer says, "Barley scattered in 
straw in the morning, at noon a warm mash of bran and meal, at night 
cracked corn and wheat." Sorghum seed is also good and clover 
leaves or chaff, boiled potatoes, vegetables of all kinds, raw, skim 
milk, warm water. He believes that green bone can be kept for some 
time in winter. Give plenty of charcoal and gravel in place of grit. 
This farmer sows several rows of lettuce very early in the spring for 
hen food, also early cabbage and onions, planning to have a succession 
of green vegetables. He also suggests that where the dwelling house 
is warmed by a furnace, and the henhouse is not too far away, a hot 
air pipe be laid from the cellar to the henhouse. 

I have often seen the first milking from a new milch cow fed to 
the hens. This often causes trouble, especially when they have not 
had any milk for a long time. Yet milk is one of the best egg pro- 
ducers that can be fed to poultry, and they can be given all that they 
will drink, provided other conditions are all right. Remember that no 
amount of good feeding will make up for bad quarters. You can't 
expect a hen to roost on a fence at night, stay out all day in a fall of 
snow and then lay, no matter how well she is fed. Hens are mortal — 
and are even more sensitive to climatic changes than human beings 
are. 

Value of Clover and Alfalfa. 

Early but well dried clover and clover meal, young grass or alfalfa 
contain more available mineral matter than grains do. These are all 
good food for getting winter eggs and cause deeply colored, attractive 
yolks. Grinding food for poultry is not necessary unless for the pur- 
pose of feeding a mixture or variety that cannot be given in any other 
shape. Remember, on this point, that green feed in winter is chiefly 
valuable because it makes it easier for the fowls more thoroughly to 
assimilate all the food elements of the grain given them. Cabbage is 
not especially nutritious nor egg-producing, but if you feed cabbages 
to your hens you will find you will only need about half as much grain 
as you would on an entire grain diet, and your egg-production will be 
much increased. I have mentioned clover meal, and this is a very 
good substitute for green foods, which is not used by poultry keepers 
as much as it should be. It is cheap and easy to store and keeps for a 
long time — indefinitely. The necessity for green food to fowls is now 
so well settled that a substitute of this sort should always be at hand 
to insure the regular ration of grain and green food to biddy. 



POULTRY 255 

Alfalfa possesses a great feeding value for poultry, as it shows 
seventeen and one-half per cent of protein as against thirteen per cent 
in clover. The third and fourth crops of alfalfa are said to he the 
best for poultry foods, being less stemmy and somewhat richer in 
protein. 

But comparing clover, as a poultry food, with wheat bran, the 
former contains one-third more carbohydrate, pound for pound, over 
one-half as much protein and more mineral matter than the wheat 
bran. This is a specially good reason why clover or alfalfa hay should 
be given to fowls. Clover or alfalfa meal, scalded, with the morning 
meal, adds therefore not only bulk to it, but valuable nutrients in a 
cheap form. Hay seems to be as good for chickens as for other live 
stock. Second growth clover is especially good. Get it harvested 
early. 

An economic source of green food, used by a California woman, 
is corn stalks. Pull the largest stalks, as many as can be held in the 
hand ; take a good sharp butcher knife and after the manner of whet- 
ting with a jack knife, slice them thin, not more than half an inch 
thick. Begin with the roots ; they will eat it all. For the young ones 
slice thinner ; chickens of all ages will go for it as they do for fresh 
meat. Feed in the morning — because then it is fresh and juicy — all 
they can eat up by noon. It takes but a few minutes to cut enough 
for fifty fowls. If one had a feed cutter perhaps it would be easier. 
If space is limited, plant between the rows when the corn is two feet 
high, but to continue such a tax and also to have the feed tender, the 
soil must be kept very rich. The fertilizer from the yards will do 
wonders. Mangels and sugar beets are good green food also. 

Selling Poultry at a Loss. 

Too much poor poultry is sold at no profit to the producers. Lots 
of people have an idea that they must sell the stock in the fall or fore 
part of winter and whether it is in condition or not it is thrown on 
the market at a time when the best fowls are not selling for very 
good prices. 

A few bushels of grain fed to that class of poultry while it is held 
back until the glut in the market has passed will make money for the 
producer. 

It should be remembered that prime or finished poultry is a rare 
thing, and when it does come in the dealers will ask the producer for 
his terms. Many a dealer in New York has asked the writer what his 
price was for his fowls — he wanted them for his best customers. 

At one time the writer sold 27 turkeys for $97.67 to a hotel and 
has made many a sale at the same prices. 

United States Senator David B. Hill has feasted on these turkeys 
and many a student at Cornell University has eaten turkeys raised 
by the writer. 

Geese. 

Raising geese is profitable both for the feathers and for market. 
They require but little care and can be raised on corners of a farm 
that are apt to be worthless for cultivation. Geese are long-lived, 



256 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

hardy, small feeders, and need much less expensive food than other 
market birds. In summer they will live entirely upon grass. They 
keep their laying- and hatching qualities through life; 15 to 20 years is 
not an uncommon age, and sometimes this extends to 40 years. Thus 
it will be seen that a goose pasture on a farm where there is a stream 
or unused spring is a good thing. 

The Gray Toulouse and the White Embden are the most profit- 
able. The Toulouse, when mature, weighs about 45 to 50 pounds a 
pair, and averages forty eggs in a season, but is an unreliable setter. 
The Embden averages about twenty eggs a season. The flesh of both 
is excellent, and when turkeys bring from 20 to 27 cents a pound, 
geese and ducks will sell for 15 and 16. 

About all the shelter the geese need is a cheap shed, to which they 
can go to dry ofif in time of storm. A plain rough board building, 
12x14, with a shed roof, water tight and covered with tarred paper, 
shingles or tin, and a floor raised 12 to 18 inches from the ground to 
avoid dampness will accommodate nicely a flock of six or eight. The 
sides can be covered by 12-inch boards, one inch thick, with joints 
covered by 3x1 inch strips. Geese are used to water on the outside, 
but they must have a place to "dry out." 

Geese for breeding should be bought as early in the fall as pos- 
sible — not later than October. A colony of a gander and one to three 
females need in this climate a lot of from 75 to 100 ft. Young ganders 
should be kept in a yard until mated. 

Geese begin to lay early in March. They will lay from 12 to 16 
eggs. Then they will set. If the eggs are taken away and hatched 
under hens the shell is apt to become dry. In this case sprinkle the 
eggs every few days with water. The goose will then lay another 
nest of eggs. Goslings grow rapidly. They will live on grass after 
two weeks. When grass dies out they need a mixture of corn meal, 
bran and table scraps in the morning, and cracked corn at night. 
Green foods in the shape of vegetables, clover and cooked vegetables 
are also recommended for fertile eggs. If a pond of water is not 
handy, a tub of water set level with the ground may be used. 

Nests made of boxes should be provided in January. Put straw 
in the boxes and lay them in sheltered places. If she gets broody con- 
fine her in a dark box or in another yard, with extra gander. The 
goose covers her eggs with litter after laying, and this should be dis- 
turbed as little as possible. Gather the eggs every day in cold 
weather, putting in a nest Qgg from time to time to induce her to keep 
on laying. 

Some geese will begin laying early in December, then stop and 
begin again in February. As soon as the geese quit laying, pluck the 
old ones every seven or eight weeks until October. They get full 
feathered again for killing about the first or second week of Decem- 
ber. The young ones pluck every seven weeks from the time the 
feathers are ripe, which is about the 1st of August. As many as 25 
goslings can be given to one hen, providing so many hatch out near 
together. The goslings do not stay long with the hen, but she will 
roost with them all season. 



POULTRY 257 

Ducks. 

Ducks are excellent farm scavengers, as they will eat much that 
can not be used elsewhere. Duck raising on a large scale has been 
very profitable for a number of years, especially in the vicinity of the 
large cities. An example of this is in the career of three brothers m 
Massachusetts, who, twelve years ago, started with ten Pekin ducks 
and one incubator, and now market each season about 50.000 ducks. 
These men started with a played-out truck farm without other capi- 
tal than good judgment and ability to work. This concern breeds 
only from two-year-old ducks, from 1.000 to 1,500 being kept to pro- 
duce eggs for the incubators. In the height of the season, which is 
June, about twenty men are employed. Last year the income from 
feathers alone, of which two tons were sold, was $1,500. The Pekin 
duck is a great grower, reaching 4 to 6 pounds weight in 10 or 11 
weeks' time, and as a table delicacy is growing constantly in favor. 

In keeping ducks many breeders put the duck houses near a 
stream of water and divide the pens or flock by means of 3-foot fences 
extending entirely across. As the proper selection of breeding stock 
decides the commercial success of a plant, it is very important to keep 
size and quality together. Pekin ducks are the most easily raised. 
They are large, a pair weighing sometimes 20 lbs., and the flesh is 
very delicate. The average of egg production is from 100 to 125 eggs 
per season. They are not frequent setters. The young ducks are 
hardy and easily raised. 

Breeding ducks do best when yarded and properly fed. After 
the laying season is over they may range. 

The New York Experiment Station sent to the Department of 
Agriculture some time ago the results of some experiments made in 
order to find the most nutritive food for ducklings. In the first test 
two lots were fed a ration in which over ninety-eight per cent of the 
protein was derived from animal sources, the ration being made up of 
meat meal, animal meal, dried blood, milk albumen, and bone meal 
with some green alfalfa. The ten younger ducklings (two weeks old 
at the beginning of the test) were fed for approximately two months. 
In the first month 3.2 pounds of dry matter were fed, the average gain 
was 27.9 ounces, making the cost of feed per pound of gain 6 cents. 
During the second month the ducklings gained 20.3 ounces on 7.5 
pounds of dry feed, costing per pound of gain 13.7 cents. 

Other experiments were made with a view to studying the rela- 
tive value of different proportions of animal food. The rations were 
made up of different proportions of animal meal, grain mixtures, corn 
meal, wheat middlings, and green alfalfa. For the whole test, which 
covered ten weeks, the average gain per duckling was 7.17 ounces, the 
dry matter eaten per pound of gain 3.9 pounds, and the cost of feed 
per pound of gain 5.4 cents. It was found that, generally speaking, 
"during the first few weeks, growth was more rapid and 'equal grow^th 
made for less food under a ration in which 60 per cent of the protein 
was obtained from animal food, than under rations having respectively 
20, 40 and 80 per cent of the protein derived from this source." Re- 
sults, on the whole, favored the use for the first few weeks of the 



258 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

ration in which 60 per cent of the protein came from animal food, and 
later foods containing an increasing proportion of grain foods. 

John I. Sipp, an eastern agriculturist, declares that the greatest 
profit in duck raising is secured if the young are sold when nine to 
ten weeks old. If they have been properly fed they should weigh 
four pounds at this age. The pin feathers do not begin to grow until 
after that time, and they are then relatively easy to prepare for mar- 
ket. They should be given no food for eighteen to twenty-four hours 
before killing, but water ought to be kept before them. In killing a 
sharp knife is run through the roof of the mouth and then they are 
hung up by the feet to bleed. The birds should be grasped by the 
head and feet and dipped in water just below the boiling point. They 
must be thoroughly dipped, as their feathers are very thick. Wrap- 
ping in a blanket and allowed to steam for a few minutes will cause 
the feathers to loosen more readily. The head must not be dipped, as 
it discolors the comb and causes the eyes to sink. 

After picking, dip the ducks in water near the boiling point for 
an instant and then place them in ice cold water for twenty minutes. 
This will cause them to plump. The market demands that the head 
and upper portion of the neck be left unpicked and the legs and en- 
trails left intact. 

Turkeys. 

One of the best breeds for profit in turkey raising is the Bronze. 
Next to this comes the Holland. Get as large hens and males as you 
can get of either of these breeds in the fall. The choice will be greater 
then and the price less. Keep them in good quarters through the 
winter. A shed for turkeys can be made of either wood or straw and 
should be enclosed on all sides, with an opening in the middle on the 
south side about eight or ten feet long on the ground, and two or three 
feet high. Close the opening at night in very cold weather. In mild 
weather leave it open. Place boxes at one end for sand, grit, charcoal 
and grain. The roosts at the other end from six to eight feet from 
the ground. 

It is best to mate young hens with old toms, and old hens with 
young toms. Inbreeding reduces the size and vitality of the turkey 
greatly and should not be practiced. Either new toms or new hens 
should be introduced at intervals and only those should be selected 
which fill requirements in size and vigor. The poults from pullets' 
eggs are not as strong as those from yearlings or 2-year-old hens. 
There is a difiference of opinion as to the number of hens to put with 
one tom. Some breeders advocate 5, others say that 12 is the right 
proportion. Uusually they begin to look about for a nest about two 
weeks before they lay. In order to prevent them from stealing their 
nests it is a good idea to have boxes or barrels or any old litter piled 
up or placed in the corners of fences and buildings early. When they 
begin to lay, if the weather is damp or cold, gather the eggs at night, 
putting a couple of hen's eggs in their place. When the weather is 
warm and she has laid 16 or 18 eggs, put back the eggs and let her 
sit. A strong hen turkey should lay 3 settings before she is allowed 
to set. One successful turkey raiser says that the last week the eggs 



POULTRY 259 

should be sprinkled with lukewarm water if the weather is hot and 
dry, unless the mother is sitting- on the ground. Don't try to set tur- 
key eggs under common hens unless the hens are free from lice, for 
the young turkeys will be likely to get lice, which may mean death for 
them. Lard and a little sulphur mixed together rubbed on the head 
and neck of young turkeys will kill the lice. 

Turkey chicks are very delicate for about six weeks, and should 
be kept in dry quarters, well sheltered, with, if possible, a wooden 
floor to the shelter. Feed nothing for the first twenty-four hours 
after they are hatched, and leave them with the hen for a day and 
night before putting in a coop, if they are cooped. For the first week 
feed minced dandelion with hard boiled eggs. The second week begin 
to add to the boiled eggs, bread crumbs and barley meal, lessening 
the egg gradually until three weeks have passed. Then this can be 
omitted and small grains fed in light quantities with boiled potatoes. 
Raw meat with onion tops chopped in is good once a day. 

They should have a plot of fresh grass to pick on and should be 
supplied with plenty of sharp sand, grit and good charcoal mashed fine. 
Some feeders place all the feed on sand so they will get grit this way. 
They ought to be fed often and only a little at a time. It is better to 
keep them hungry rather than to feed too much. Guard against vermin 
by dustii\g setting nests and hens with insect powder. Hog lard 
placed under the wings of the hens that brood the young will prevent 
lice from troubling them. Also grease the head and wings of the 
young poults. 

When cooped remove the coop often to fresh ground. Give 
water and sweet new milk in shallow vessels, so that they can only 
wet their beaks. Watch the hen turkeys closely when the chicks are 
feathered enough to run, and see that they do not take the chicks to 
swampy places. Until the young are eight or ten weeks old keep in a 
confined place. Great care should be taken to keep the chicks from 
getting wet, as they are very susceptible to the damp and cold. 

About the biggest problem in turkey raising is in the the proper 
care of th^ poults. While the older turkeys are very hardy, the chicks 
are the most delicate of all poultry to care for. They must be watched 
very carefully until they get their first plumage and ''throw the red" 
or get their combs. To let the young get wet means nearly always 
death. Lice can also kill them in a very short time. 

The following directions for setting turkey eggs were given in 
"Wallace's Farmer" : 

If early young turkeys are wanted eggs should be set under 
chicken hens (making sure that hens have no lice on them), setting 
two at the same time. Make a portable pen by nailing boards 2 inches 
wide, 8 and 10 feet long, to corner posts (2x4), four feet high. Sur- 
round this pen with netting three feet wide, tacking it to top of boards 
and extending it to top of posts. Cut hole in bottom of one of the 
boards and place a box with a good corner on it outside and against 
the hole for the hen and brood to roost and find shelter in. Put one 
hen with both broods in this pen and feed with corn bread baked as for 
the table, and mixed with about the same amount of milk curd. After 



260 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

the brood has learned to know the cluck of the hen raise the pen so 
that they can go in and out at will. Move pen frequently into fresh 
sod and locate it away from the chicken yard, as lice and wet are death 
to young turkeys. After the middle of June I allow my turkey hens to 
rear their own broods, allowing them the liberty of the fields and pas- 
tures, but feeding them the same as the others until grasshoppers 
come. Insects make a natural food for young turkeys and when these 
are plentiful they need nothing else. 

Young, tender grass, finely cracked wheat, apples, cabbages and 
lettuce are all good turkey feed when chopped fine. Corn meal is not 
good for young turkeys in any quantity, but a little may be mixed 
with wheat bran or milk curd. Plenty of charcoal should be given, 
well powdered, and ashes, road dust or air-slacked lime sprinkled in 
the bottoms of the coops. Never keep food lying by them when they 
are still small, and do not let them get wet or draggled in dew or rain. 
Feed only what they will eat up clean. When fattening turkeys feed 
liberally with grain and corn meal wet with hot water and give them 
plenty of clean water to drink. Give vegetables two or three times a 
week, and finely chopped hay. The second cutting of clover is one 
of the best grasses for them. Corn is also good for fattening. Don't 
dispose of the old breeders until they are 8 or 10 years old, provided 
they are good breeders. 

An eastern turkey raiser says that the best fattening ration for 
turkeys and chickens to round them into shape quickly is three feeds 
a day of all they can eat of cooked potatoes and corn meal, with one 
feed of whole grain. The grain should be given as the last feed for 
the day and may consist of whole corn, buckwheat or wheat, or a mix- 
ture of the three. One-tenth of all the soft food should be of ground 
bone, beef scraps or other animal food, while grit and pounded char- 
coal must be kept before the birds at all times. Steamed clover, 
chopped cabbage, beets or other green food ought also to be mixed 
with the mash and all the fresh water the birds can drink must be 
provided for. The fowls ought to be kept in rather close confinement 
and upon a sward, if possible. It is surprising how quickly chickens 
and turkeys fatten on this special ration and those raising their own 
poultry for Thanksgiving or the holidays will find no better fattening 
ration. From eighteen to twenty-one days of such feeding will be 
sufficient to put them in ideal shape for the table. 

The turkey is an insect eater and if he is not confined he is worth 
as much as a hired man to the farmer in grasshopper season. He is 
an early riser and travels many miles in the course of the season. In 
this connection other great insect eaters are the quail and the crow; 
these birds are worth their weight in gold in the United States for this 
reason. 

Squab Raising. 

The constant and increasing demand for squabs (young pigeons) 
indicates that there is a profitable business to be had in the raising of 
them. They are most called for in the market when game cannot be 
bought and broiler chicks are not in. Any farmer's wife meditating 
pigeon raising should get the largest brood birds she can. Carrier 



POULTRY 261 

pigeons are rapid growing birds. Give them proper housing and 
don't let them roost in any old place. Watch them carefully, give 
them good, clean nests, and keep them protected from rats, cats, and 
other prowlers. Get your squabs ready early in the spring. 

It has been said that a pair of pigeons can be kept for a dollar a 
year, or less, and that they will produce at least a dozen squabs a 
year, averaging $4.00 a dozen for the year. Pigeons will keep on 
breeding regularly for about seven years, and there is a market for 
squabs the year around. A pigeon house can be built for a few dol- 
lars, if you have no shed suitable on your lot or farm. A flying yard 
covered with mesh poultry netting can be easily made. By saving 
the largest and best squabs for breeding the increase and upkeep of 
the fiock is insured. As to the real facts between expenses and in- 
come consult those who know how and have raised squabs for years. 

Two good books for amateurs in pigeon raising are, "Squabs for 
Profit," by Rice and Cox, price 50 cents, and "Pigeon Keeping for 
Amateurs," by J. C. Lyell, price 50 cents. But take all squab raising 
advice with a few grains of salt until you have tried it yourself. Not 
long ago Mr. Hiram Lycan, a squab raiser of Paris, 111., wrote a rather 
gloomy report of his experience in squab raising. It appears that 
there are two sides to this business. 

Diseases of Fowls. 

No matter what disease attacks fowls it is a safe rule to isolate 
the afifected ones at once without a moment's delay after discovery. 
Then clean and disinfect the coops by kerosene sprays, followed by 
a coating of whitewash with a little carbolic acid. Fuller directions 
for specific treatment follow : 

Lice. 

The dust bath may be considered almost a specific against lice. 
The hens will throw the dust up through their feathers, eflfectively 
smothering these vermin, which, having no lungs, must breathe 
through apertures in their sides. 

Favus. 
Sometimes chickens are either affected with the disease known as 
favus, or with the disease known as depluming scabies. Both of these 
diseases are similar, as is also the disease known as scaly legs. With 
favus the disease appears first upon the comb and neck as yellowish 
raised areas of circular or irregular outline. The skin becomes 
crusted as the disease progresses, and the chickens lose their plumage. 
The affected birds should be washed with warm water to make the 
crust removable, after which the parts may be coated with an ointment 
made of one part benzine, twenty parts soft soap and enough sulphur 
to make the mixture into a paste. 

Depluming Scabies. 
Depluming scabies attacks the feathers, causing them to break 
off near the skin. Unlike favus, this disease begins at the rump and 
spreads forward to all parts of the body. It is due to the workings of 



262 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

a mite. The affected parts should be rubbed with carbolized ointment 
or an ointment made by mixing one dram of balsam of Peru with one 
ounce of vaseline. 

Scurvy Leg. 

Similar to these diseases are the scabs and warts on chicken's 
legs, which come ofif sometimes and bleed. These are usually due to 
scurvy leg, a disease caused by a very small insect working among 
the scales of the shanks and feet. 

Wash with warm water and soak and anoint thoroughly with 
carbolated vaseline. Or you can get one of the commercial liquids 
sold for this purpose, dilute it to one-fourth, and dip the shanks in 
this. 

Gapes. 

Gapes, a disease caused by the Gape Worm, is usually confined 
to young chicks. The worm is originally a parasite of the earth 
worm, and may infect the chicks through several sources: infected 
drinking water, the eating of angle worms, or the picking up of the 
parasite from ground which is occupied by other infected chicks, who 
have coughed up the gape worm. The worm, after birth, makes its 
home in the windpipe and in fatal cases has been allowed to gather 
and grow in such quantities that the chick chokes to death. The dis- 
ease first shows in a slight cough ; as the worms grow larger the local 
irritation increases, and the peculiar gaping which gives name to the 
disease begins. Sneezing, difificulty in swallowing and breathing are 
other signs. But as these also accompany pneumonia or bronchitis 
the constant gaping, in chicks, is almost the only sure sign, especially 
if there is no rise of temperature with it. 

In the early stages the preventive treatment of removal to new 
ground, absolute clealiness of quarters and utensils, and feeding from 
boards or shallow dishes thoroughly scalded after each feeding will 
usually cure the chicks if practiced in time. But it will take some 
period before much improvement is seen. Some good gape cure 
mixed with the food is also advised. But if the disease is treated as 
soon as discovered the trouble is usually self-limiting; as the embryo 
of the worm is hatched out in the ground, and therefore the great 
need in the poultry yard is to keep the chicks away from infected 
ground and observe perfect cleanliness and free use of disinfectants. 

Roup. 

The various vermin and roup remedies should be kept on hand, 
and at hand, and used freely. Insect powders are a necessity. If your 
yards are small, and only a few hens are kept, a whisk broom can be 
used for cleaning yards, houses or drinking vessels or for applying 
disinfecting preparations. For larger quarters the use of one of the 
low-priced spray pumps is the better method. A few cents' worth of 
the poultry germicides now on the market dissolved in a gallon of 
water and applied often and regularly will keep down vermin and kill 
disease germs better than any amount of semi-annual cleaning of in- 
fested henhouses. These disinfectants will also often prevent disease 
when sprinkled on roosts and floors, as the fumes, breathed in by the 



POULTRY 263 

fowls help to make them immune. A cheap hand sprayer can be 
bought for from 75 cents to one dollar. One gallon of the cheapest 
kerosene and one pint of crude carbolic acid, diluted with one and a 
half gallons of hot soap suds, makes a cheap but effectual mixture for 
walls and roosts. 

If roup, or chicken cholera, once gets among the chickens on a 
farm, the germs are likely to remain there for months. Sprinkle air- 
slacked lime all over the poultry yard after you have raked it clean, 
in order to destroy these. Roup usually develops from a bad cold. A 
fowl may sneeze, water a little at the eyes and nostrils, and be gener- 
ally dumpy as the result of a cold. This cold, if taken hold of at once, 
can be cured by forcing a little one-grain pill made of strychnine, iron 
and quinine, down the throat of each sick fowl. Give bread crumbs at 
the same time. If something of this sort is not done at once the cold 
will become accompanied by rattling in the throat, when it is called 
bronchitis. If the chickens gasp, it is pneumonia. Diphtheria may 
follow, and roup also. This last is so difficult of cure and so very con- 
tagious that the safest thing to do is to kill the fowl and burn it. 
Clean the chicken house and disinfect. Fumigation with sulphur, of 
the roosting place, driving the fowls into the scratching shed or yard, 
is advised. Quarantine every chicken that shows the first signs of 
infection and give each individual the following treatment as a wash. 
This can also be used internally, in teaspoonful doses: 35 grains 
chlorate of potassium, 2 grains salicylic acid, 1 oz. each of water and 
of glycerine. Wash the heads of the chickens with this, as the eyes 
get glued together. 

With an atomizer spray a liquid made of 4 tablespoons witch 
hazel, 2 tablespoons water and 3 drops carbolic acid into nostrils and 
mouth. One poultry raiser takes the sick chicken by the feet and 
dips her head for a second into a pail two-thirds full of water, into 
which one-half cup of kerosene has been poured. Dip the head just 
under the surface, dry well with warm cloths and put it in a dry, 
warm place. Ten drops of turpentine to twenty of sweet oil is a 
good mixture taken internally. Give about ten drops to a chicken. 
If tumors develop on head and face paint with equal parts of aconite 
and iodine. 

Do not handle infected fowls without protecting the hands, and 
burn all cloths or articles used in treatment. For the above very com- 
plete directions I am indebted to an article on the subject of roup by 
Mrs. Ida E. Tilson, an authority on poultry raising and a very clever 
and painstaking one. 

Chicken Cholera and Bowel Troubles. 

Chicken cholera, of which the first indication is usually a slight, 
watery diarrhoea, is also accompanied by a lack of life and spirit, and 
the bird goes moping around half asleep with ruffled feathers. The 
droppings become bloody as the result of intense inflammation ; the 
comb darkens; frequently it turns black and the decline is rapid— the 
bird possibly being sick but a few hours — though the length of time 
varies. It attacks all kinds of domestic fowls and carries with it a 



264 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

high fever, while birds become exceedingly weak and may topple over 
at the slightest touch. 

This disease is so often brought into a chicken yard by the intro- 
duction of new fowls that are infected that the best suggestion of 
cure is one of prevention. Quarantine new fowls until you are cer- 
tain they have no disease germs to give to your flock. Among the 
remedies offered nothing is better than pure drinking water in which 
some one of the many excellent cholera remedies now on the market 
has been placed. Give this to the fowls in any amount that they will 
drink and keep up the most strict attention to cleanliness and disinfec- 
tion of yards and quarters for some time after the disease seems to 
have disappeared. Be sure, also, to burn all dead fowls and disinfect 
and bury the ashes at some distance from the poultry yard. 

There are various forms of bowel troubles, of a more or less seri- 
ous nature, to which young chicks are subject, but all of these, unless 
brought in from outside quarters, may be traced back either to im- 
proper food or drink or too close confinement and lack of ventilation 
and cleanliness in chicken houses. The same general treatment as for 
cholera is advised. Be careful to see that if sour food is given it 
should be sour from lactic acid and not from fermentation. Sour milk 
is good, but a sour mash is not. 

White diarrhoea is supposed to be a germ disease which attacks 
the caeca or blind intestine. A post mortem examination will always 
reveal the presence of Coccidium tennelum, a parasite belonging to 
the Sporozoa of the division Protozoa, the lowest division of animal 
life. This same germ attacks turkeys, ducks and pigeons. When this 
disease prevails, it kills from 60 to 75 per cent of all chicks hatched. 
It is accompanied by a white, pasty, fecal discharge which pastes up 
the feathers and closes the vent. There is also a disease which is a 
contraction of the vent which comes with or without White Diarrhoea, 
and is always fatal. 

The cause is the presence of the germ as above. While this dis- 
ease may readily be transmitted from the droppings of affected fowls, 
the primary cause must be sought back to the eggs used for hatching. 
Hatching eggs should always be antiseptically cleaned by wiping in 
95 per cent grain alcohol. If an incubator is used (and it allows the 
best chance for success against the disease) it should be washed with 
a solution of some good germicide and exposed to the sun. The €:gg 
tray should be scalded and washed with the same solution and, if 
there is burlap in the nursery or elsewhere, it should be renewed. 
The same precautions should be taken with the brooders. The soil 
to which the chicks have access should be well disinfected with the 
solution, dug up often, and exposed to the purifying effect of sun 
and air. 

Round worms and tape worms are not a cause of serious trouble 
among fowls, unless they are present in large numbers. But as they 
may take away from the flesh forming powers of the fowls they should 
be looked for, if symptoms of diarrhoea and wasting away are seen. 
They sometimes also cause staggering. A little care and the right 
remedy will generally overcome the trouble quickly. 



POULTRY 265 

Mites. 

If you want to know whether you have mites wipe your perches 
early in the morning- with a white cloth or pound the roosts a little. 
Hot water, sprayed into cracks, or kerosene in the joints, are both 
good mite killers. Be sure that your coops for chicks are thoroughly 
cleaned, repaired, disinfected and whitewashed before they are put 
away for the winter. Remember that mites are not lice, but belong 
to the spider family. Cats, dogs and some birds of the air may carry 
these pests, and as they multiply rapidly, and may live for a long time 
without food, the necessity for constant keeping at their hiding places, 
which are always dark cracks, is evident, unless you want to keep 
hens in order to support mites. 

Apoplexy. 

Apoplexy among chickens is quite a common disease. The 
chicken suddenly drops dead from the perch or it may have a milder 
attack, resembling vertigo, when the fowl throws its head and body 
about as if giddy, and falls in a fluttering, kicking collapse on the 
ground. Either vertigo or apoplexy are generally due to over-feeding, 
and the best remedy for vertigo is to drop all the fattening portion of 
the ration, corn especially. Also confine the sick birds for a time. In 
cases of vertigo, hold the head of the chicken under a stream of cold 
water, and this will often revive it. Be sure also that the ventilation 
of the chicken house is good, and don't let the chickens roost high, as 
they will do invariably if left to themselves, and if there are any 
perches near the top of the coops. A chicken which is found lying on 
the floor of the henhouse, but is still alive, may be restored by open- 
ing a blood vessel under the wing and letting it bleed profusely. This 
relieves the pressure on the brain. Keep your fowls well exercised 
also to avoid these troubles. 

Egg- Eating. 

Egg-eating among hens is usually due to eggs being accidentally 
broken. If hens do not get enough protein in their food or are too 
closely confined they are apt to eat eggs. If the habit spreads to the 
flock in general, put in very dark nest boxes, entered from the rear, 
as only an egg-laying hen will be likely to go into these. The cloth 
pocket hen's nest described in this chapter is an excellent preventive 
for this habit. 

Feather-Eating, 

Feather eating is generally found where fowls are kept in too 
much confinement without variety of food. Turn the chickens out 
for a time, if possible, to range for themselves. If you can find the 
ones that do the eating it may be best to kill them, if not too valuable. 
Paring the beak of the guilty one down to the quick Will sometimes 
help. Feather eating is most common during the moulting season, 
when the pin feathers are full of oil, and the cause may be that more 
animal food may be needed. It would be well to try an increase of 
green cut bone or fresh meat. 



266 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Bumble Foot. 

The cause of a rooster's not being able to walk may be due to a 
warty growth in the ball of his feet known as bumble foot. If this is 
found to be the case remove the growths with a sharp knife and touch 
the wound thus made with nitrate of silver. The feet should be bathed 
frequently in warm water and the bird kept isolated on a bed of leaves 
or straw. 

Limberneck. 

The disease limberneck is peculiar to warm climates. It is be- 
lieved always to come from flocks getting access to carrion and eat- 
ing too many maggots. The latter go down whole and alive, and 
before they can be digested they have perforated some membranes of 
throat or craw. Mycosis, or the mould disease, also acquired from 
carrion, acts somewhat the same only it is a rapidly growing, sufifocat- 
ing fungus, vegetable, not animal. It may be acquired from very 
mouldy grain. Copperas is as good as any remedy for Limberneck. 
A little spirits of turpentine in drinking water, one teaspoon to two 
quarts may be used for two or three days, or each affected bird be 
given a turpentine capsule, followed soon after by one teaspoon castor 
oil. Examination and cleansing of premises is best preventive. Do 
not eat the fowls or allow any to be sold for food until you are sure 
your flock is rid of the trouble. 

Scours. 

Too much soft food for hen hatched chicks is said to be a cause 
of "scours." With brooder chicks the trouble is usually due to too 
great extremes in temperature. Either of these suggests its own 
remedy. 

Leg Weakness. 

Many large, heavy roosters sufifer from leg weakness. Their 
bodies develop faster in weight than their legs do in strength and as 
a consequence sooner or later the legs give way under the continual 
strain. Little can be done in such a case excepting to keep the bird 
quiet and to give him muscle and strength forming foods. He should 
be kept in a compartment removed from the other birds and given 
from two to four grains of powdered sulphate of iron daily in his food. 

Night Hawks. 

One good way of preventing the night prowling enemies of young 
chickens has been tried successfully by a Pittsfield, Mass., farmer, 
who carries on a large poultry business, selling over a thousand fowls 
as market poultry alone. The chicken plot is made into pens 50x100 
ft. and around each of these the farmer plows up a furrow. Boards 8 
in. wide are strung along the flat side of the furrow. Stakes are 
driven to come full 3>4 ft. above these, and then the furrows are 
turned back to the boards. One inch wire netting 3 ft. wide is tacked 
to the boards at the bottom and at the top to these stakes. This gives 
a sufficient protection 

Another way of protection from hawks is to put the chicks' coops 
in a small grassy yard, enclosed with a tight fence, high enough to 



POULTRY 267 

keep them from getting out. Stick this full of brush, leaving just 
enough space for the caretaker to get through. The chickens, run- 
ning through this brush, are saved from the danger of a sudden swoop 
down from above, A third remedy used against hawks is to hang out 
dozen sheets of bright tin, each sheet about 5x12 inches with a 
string attached to one end and this in turn tied to a limb of a tree. 
The string should be about two feet long, allowing the sheet to re- 
volve constantly. It does frighten hawks. 

A good way to keep the chicks away from rats is to raise the 
coops on posts about two feet from the ground with inverted tin pans 
over these. Runs for the chicks leading up to the coop entrance are 
dropped at night, and the door closed. At each end of the coop roof 
are ventilators covered with wire screens. 

The best way to break up broody hens is to confine them to a dry 
smooth floor, without litter, in company with an active cockerel and 
feed them liberally with stimulating food. 

General Helps. 

Store plenty of dry earth under cover before winter sets in, so that 
the hens will not lack for a dust bath in cold weather. You will also 
need the clean, dry earth on the henhouse floor for a disinfectant and 
absorbent. 

Don't put pine sawdust on poultry floors. It becomes infested 
with fleas. Cedar sawdust is all right. 

There is nothing more valuable for the poultryman or farmer 
during the winter than a feed cooker or boiler to cook feed, heat 
water, make spray mixtures and a dozen other things. The morn- 
ing mash or feed for the stock can be prepared the afternoon before 
and left to heat up during the night. Warm feeds and water are es- 
sential during the cold months. 

Plum trees are good in a poultry yard, as the chickens tend to 
hold in check the curculio, one of the plum tree pests. Wherever 
other fruit trees will grow they can be planted to good advantage in 
a poultry yard. Apples, crab apples, pears, peaches or cherries will 
be benefited by the poultry pickings and will also give the fowls an 
abundance of shade. 

The dropping canvas to hang below the hen roost is much better 
than the board platform. Hang it on hooks twelve inches below the 
roost by several small rings sewed to it. Then it can be easily 
removed, carried out, cleaned and sprinkled with air-slacked lime. 

City people can keep a few hens for eggs without males. This 
not only precludes breeding, but it precludes the crowing of the 
rooster in the morning. When the hens are beyond the age of profit- 
able egg-producing they can be disposed of for eating purposes and 
pullets bought from some reliable breeder. 

It is often desirable to move hens from their own -chosen nests 
to a place more convenient for their owner. In such cases its hould be 
done at night, and the new nest should be well filled with eggs. It is 
also important that it should be dark and so arranged that a cover 
may be placed over it to shut ofif tlie hen's view of the surroundings 



268 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

until she has become fairly fixed in her new quarters and the old nest 
forgotten. 

An old broom makes a good scrubbing brush for a henhouse. 

Do not have too much glass in your henhouse. On the south side 
is sufficient. 

Storing Eggs. 

There are several ways to preserve eggs for home use, but the 
most satisfactory method is to place them in sodium silicate (water- 
glass). A large jar is secured and thoroughly cleaned. Then to 
every fifteen quarts of cold boiled water add one quart of water- 
glass. Into this solution the eggs are placed as they are collected un- 
til the jar is filled within three inches of the top. Two inches of the 
liquid should always overlay the eggs. This method of storage is 
very cheap, costing but about one cent per dozen. When eggs are 
stored by any method they should never be washed, for this makes 
the shells porous and detracts from their keeping qualities. The eggs 
should be infertile, that is, they should be from hens having no males 
running with them, for infertile eggs keep better and longer than 
fertile ones. The shells should be absolutely clean and the eggs ab- 
solutely fresh. Eggs with cracked shells ought never to be stored 
by this or other rriethods. 

Uses of Eggs. 

The usefulness of eggs is by no means confined to the food value 
of the egg, although, compared with other food, eggs still keep their 
relative economic relation to meat as to their food value, whether in 
nutritive or financial qualities. But eggs have a decidedly medicinal 
use, and here are some of them : 

A raw egg swallowed at once when a fishbone is caue^ht in the 
throat beyond the reach of the finger will dislodge the bone and carry 
it down. The white of a raw egg turned over a burn or scald is most 
soothing and cooling. It can be applied quickly and will prevent in- 
flammation, beside relieving the stinging pain. A mustard plaster 
made with the white of an egg will not leave a blister. The white 
skin that lines the shell of an egg is a useful application for a boil. 
The white of an egg beaten with loaf sugar and lemon relieves hoarse- 
ness — a teaspoonful taken every hour. An egg added to the morning 
cup of coffee makes a good tonic. A raw egg with the yolk unbroken, 
taken in a glass of the best sherry wine, is beneficial for convalescents. 
An excellent remedy for bowel troubles is partly beaten raw egg taken 
at one swallow. It is healing to the inflamed stomach and intestines, 
and will relieve the feeling of distress. Four eggs taken in this man- 
ner in twenty-four hours will form the best kind of nourishment, as 
well as medicine. 

The white of a raw egg is the most satisfactory of pastes. Papers 
intended to be put over tumblers of jelly and jam will hold very 
securely and be air tight if dipped in the white of an egg. A raw egg 
is one of the most nutritious of foods and may be taken very easily 
if the yolk is not broken. A little nutmeg grated upon the egg, a few 
drops of lemon juice added, some chopped parsley sprinkled over it, 



POULTRY 269 

or some salt and a dash of cayenne pepper, vary the flavor and tend to 
make it more palatable. The turning of eggs is said to prevent their 
getting stale, as when the egg rests in one position too long the yolk 
works its way through the white to the shell bottom and is affected by 
the air through the shell. 

Summary. 
Remember that fowls need certain things for egg production, in 
perfect shape, for the best commercial results. Granted you have 
good stock these things are : 

1. Warmth. 

2. Ventilation. 

3. Cleanliness. 

4. Plenty of range for exercise. 

5. A. food ration that will give cereal, animal, vegetable and min- 
eral matter in the right proportions, and in variety, fed regularly. 

6. Plenty of fresh water, and of warm skim milk, in clean vessels. 

7. Intelligent treatment of the hen's peculiarities and appetite. 
Never overfeed. Watch the quality of food for young chickens and 
the amount for old ones, and keep green food and grit before hens all 
the time. 

8. Immediate attention to diseases, although perfect cleanliness 
will usually prevent diseases. 



CHAPTER XVII 

Stock Breeding 

THE breeding of live stock is absolutely necessary to a per- 
fect system of farming. The keeping of a great variety of 
live stock upon the farm not only furnishes profitable work 
during the whole year, and adds greatly to the revenues that 
may be derived from the land, but it also converts the grain and grass 
of a farm into products which add to the value of these crops, and at 
the same time make the smallest draft on the farm's plant food re- 
sources. 

Assuming that we need not argue the advisability of every farmer 
keeping live stock, the only remaining question to be settled is what 
class and what breed shall be kept. In the first place, it is my candid 
belief that too many farmers, and especially stock breeders, in purchas- 
ing a sire, buy the pedigree only, and too often pay dear for it, while 
the individual itself is very deficient in type, outline and many of the 
essential points necessary to constitute a good sire. 

No matter what class of live stock you desire to raise, let it always 
be pure bred. The time of the "penny royal" steer, "razor-back" hog 
and "native" sheep is past, not to be thought of in these days, when all 
agree that the greatest benefit from live stock is only derived when 
good blood flows through their veins. Yet, if you can not begin with 
pure bred stock at first, you should strive to improve your stock by 
always using pure bred sires. By doing this for a few years your 
herd will become, for all practical purposes, as good as pure bred. 
Breeders have been so successful in fixing types that pure bred ani- 
mals can, with almost absolute certainty, be counted on to produce 
progeny that in every way is true to type, and great marks of im- 
provement have been made on the original stock. This may be 
counted on as true in all classes of live stock. Let every stock breeder, 
in the first place, in purchasing a sire, be sure to select a good individ- 
ual, with well defined outlines and type, and with a general combina- 
tion of excellent points and pure breed. Then investigate his pedi- 
gree, seeing to it that it reaches back through several generations of 
ancestors of excellent strains. 

In case you do not feel like trusting your own judgment alone in 
selecting a sire, it is not always wise to employ the veterinary who 
happens to be near at hand, for while most veterinaries are good 
judges of disease among live stock, in most cases they are very poor 
judges of good sires, for they have not made any particular study of 
that subject. Other things being equal, the man, or woman, raised on 
a stock farm, has, from practical experience in raising stock, the best 
knowledge, and is therefore the best judge of good sires. As a gen- 
eral rule suit the class of stock to be raised on the farm to some 




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STOCKBREEDING 271 

particular purpose, whether the stock to be selected be cows for dairy- 
ing purposes, horses for speed and durability, sheep to produce large 
fleeces of wool that find a ready market, or to make good, heavy mut- 
ton, or swine that require the least amount of food to produce the larg- 
est per cent of profit for the feeder. 

Native Cattle. 

The introduction of native cattle into the states and territories 
began as early as 1525. 

The Dutch, in New York, imported cattle, commencing in 1625; 
the English, in Massachusetts, in 1624; and importations by the Eng- 
lish to Pennsylvania began in 1662. Our native stock all sprang from 
these importations. It is impossible to trace any direct pedigree of 
our native cattle, but some writers trace the origin of our common 
stock to the English Devon. A number of the early settlers were 
from the south of England, where the Devon cattle were the prevail- 
ing breed, and this was the breed the New England people brought to 
the eastern states. The predominant color was an all-over dark red 
and their horns were quite long. 

Short Horn Cattle. 

This breed of cattle has attained a distinction and won a substan- 
tial appreciation which no other has so fully and widely enjoyed 
among the enlightened grazers of the world. From Great Britain its 
dissemination has extended to the continent, to Australia, to South 
Africa, South America, Mexico, and to the West Indies, while it has 
secured almost a monopoly of the importations of this country and 
Canada. For the grass pastures of the Ohio valley, and the 
abundant natural and cultivated grasses of the broader prairies of the 
Mississippi region, it is admirably fitted and held in high esteem as 
the most economical machine for the speedy conversion of corn and 
grass into meat and money. 

The original short horn occupied the east of England, Yorkshire, 
and the valley of the Tee at the date of the earliest records of British 
stock growing. They were various in size, color and other peculiari- 
ties ; the dark skinned herds of the fens resembling the black cattle of 
the Holland marshes, and the finer forms of Yorkshire and Durham 
assuming the style and quality of the noted cattle of Holstein and 
Jutland. Yet it may not certainly be known whether the ancient emi- 
grants from those localities brought this stock to England or whether 
this similarity is the result of climate and keeping. It was at least a 
race very distinct from that of Ireland and the west of England, with 
long horns, thick skins, and a heavy coat of hair, well suited for their 
protection in a climate subject to continuous seasons of rain. It is 
well known in later times that Dutch and Danish importations modi- 
fied these cattle of the east of England, and suggested the more recent 
and greater improvements of Charles and Robert Colling, commenc- 
ing about the era of our revolution, and continued successfully since 
by Messrs. Bates, Booth, Townley, and others in England, and 
Thorne, Alexander, and other breeders in this country. 



272 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

The story of the bull Hubback, the founder of the modern short 
horn, has often been told. He was purchased in 1783 by Charles Col- 
ling of his brother and a Mr. Waistell for eight guineas, and is said 
to have been from a cow grazed by a poor man on the highway. It 
has long been a matter of controversy whether he was a pure bred 
Teeswater, — the short horn of that day. He was somewhat below 
the usual size of the Teeswaters, yellow, red and white in color, of 
a fine, compact form, admirable touch, and so easily fattened that he 
early became useless as a bull. The cow also purchased by Colling 
acquired fat very rapidly, and never again bred. Either from mere 
curiosity or from a suspicion that he was impairing the constitution of 
his animals by continuous breeding in too small a circle, Colling tried 
the experiment of infusing some of the Galloway blood, which was 
confined, it is understood, to a single cross upon certain individuals of 
his herd. At the sale of Charles Colling, in 1810, forty-seven animals 
produced 8,911 guineas, or about $44,555. Robert Colling, not so 
renowned, but esteemed by many quite as judicious a breeder, sold 
sixty-one animals (but six of them bulls) for 7,484 guineas, equal to 
$37,420. High prices have also been maintained by later breeders. 
Mr. Bates, in 1850, sold one family of Duchess stock, including calves, 
at an average of $581. Lord Ducie's herd, in 1853, realized an aver- 
age of $760 for sixty-two animals. Individuals of superior excellence, 
from the day when Colling's "Comet" sold for 1,000 guineas, have 
commanded fabulous prices. Similar prices have been obtained in this 
country. 

There were at least five hundred herds of pure bred short horns in 
Great Britain ten years ago. From six to seven thousand head were 
registered in the herd book every alternate year at that period, and 
these numbers are yearly increasing in accelerated ratio. 

Derived from a large breed the improved short horn is heavy, less 
in weight than the originals of the Tees, rounder and deeper in the 
trunk, the limbs shorter, chest and back broader, appearing less in 
bulk, while really greater in weight. The skin is light colored, hair 
reddish brown or white or mixed, the muzzle flesh colored, the horns 
shorter and lighter colored than in the former breed, the skin soft to 
the touch, the form square, the shoulder upright, and the hind quarter 
large. The color can not be characterized by a single term, varying 
greatly from a pure white to a rich red, a mixture being the fashion, 
known as roan or strawberry. The skin should be velvety and not 
too thin, while the hair should be plentiful and of a mossy softness. 
The head of the female is finer and more tapering than that of the 
male, the neck thinner and lighter, and her shoulders inclining to nar- 
row towards the chin. The short horn looks smaller than he is. He 
excells all other stock in facility of fattening, making good and heavy 
beef in thirty months, and even in two years. 

The idea is somewhat prevalent that short horn cows are not 
good milkers. It has been obtained, without doubt, from the fact of 
the well known efiforts made to perfect their fattening qualities, in 
accordance with Bakewell's saying that, "All was useless that was 
not beef." It is true of many families of short horns. Others are su- 



STOCK BREEDING 273 

perior milkers. The original Holstein blood of the Durham and Hold- 
erness districts was famous for its milking quality, and it is difficult to 
breed it out with all the culture which the modern improved short 
horns have received. The modern Holderness stock at this day chiefly 
supplies the London dairies, and many of their best milkers have 
strong strains of the improved blood. The Duchess stock of great 
celebrity and purity, bred by Mr. Bates, was distinguished for its 
excellence in this respect. Some short horns in this country have 
yielded ample supplies of milk of excellent quality. 

In selecting a bull to breed from, for good milkers, select one 
rather long and loosely built, with heavy body, color strawberry roan, 
with horns short and thick, of even size out from the head, and only 
tapering slightly at the end, with neck well cut up under the jaw, and 
with a nose tapering decidedly down from the eyes to nearly a point. 
For form and shape, see picture of short horn bull in volume. 

James O. Sheldon, of Geneva, New York state, was a noted 
breeder of the Duchess, and sold his whole herd to Walkolt and Cam- 
bell, of New York Mills. They bred this same herd until they had 100 
in all, then they sold them for between $300,000 and $400,000. 

One cow, a pure bred short horn, owned by Isaac Ford, of Tomp- 
kins county. New York, gave 36 quarts per day, and was milked three 
times a day. Another cow, owned by Philip Stephens, of Ithaca, New 
York, made 19^ lbs. of butter per week throughout the season. The 
writer sold a pure short horn cow, bred from the Sheldon stock, that 
gave a bushel of good milk a day throughout the season, and was 
milked until she was 17 years old. Her grand sire was Bow of Oxford 
and was bred by James O. Sheldon. 

The Hon. Lyman E. Murdock, of New York state, bred and 
raised a pair of shorthorns. He sold them to some New York City 
people for $800. Three weeks later he discovered that they were 
being exhibited in New York City, and went there with the idea of 
buying them back again. He met with no success, for the men who 
bought the cattle would not sell at any price. It was said that they 
charged 25c. admission and took in $100,000 during the New York 
exhibit. The cattle were then 7 years old and weighed 8,000 lbs., 
being at that time the heaviest cattle in the world. 

The backs of these animals were so broad that a half bushel of 
shelled corn could be turned onto them between the hip bone and not 
a kernel would spill off. 

They were kept on ground feed, both summer and winter, from 
the time they were calves, and were also pastured out the same as 
other cattle. They were broken when calves to the yoke and were 
used to haul hay when very young. 

They were finally shipped to London, where they were slaught- 
ered for beef, and their meat was sold for 75 cents to a dollar a pound. 

Other Types. 

Of course there are many other breeds, but we shall only mention 
a few. 

The Devons make the best cattle for working purposes, for they 



274 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

are quick walkers and of a good disposition, and the cows of this 
family give a very rich quality of milk. The Guernsey and the Jersey, 
while small in size, are noted for the exceeding richness of the quality 
of their milk, their butter is of a golden color, hardness of texture and 
of a nutty flavor. 

The Holstein cattle are large and well developed, they make good 
beef cattle and the cows are noted for the very large quantity of milk 
which they give. 

One imported Ayrshire cow, Jean Armour, in 1862, gave on an 
average 49 pounds of milk a day, for 114 days. Her milk made two 
pounds of butter per day. Some of this breed of cows have yielded 16 
pounds of butter per week for weeks and weeks in succession. 

Beef Cattle For Market. 

A large percentage of our beef cattle are slaughtered too young, 
many of them just as they are beginning to take on flesh. 

A well bred steer, if he be fed and cared for as he should be, will, 
after the second year, take on flesh and increase in weight one-third 
more than any one of his first two years. This is true until he is four 
years old. Previous to his third year the food materials go into mak- 
ing up his bones and tissues, and if his feeding is rational he will have 
a good foundation to build the flesh upon. 

It is a well known fact that the better bred an animal is, with few 
exceptions, the better will be the beef and the price received. Care 
should be taken in feeding. A good pasture with several varieties of 
grasses and good water is needed for summer. In the winter use early 
cut clover hay, sliced mangle wurtzel beets and a mixture of farm 
grains ground up. Plenty of salt mixed with mashed charcoal will 
keep them in prime condition and when they are four years old they 
will weigh from 2,000 to 2,200 lbs. 

Many farmers think that the sooner they can get their animals 
on the market the more saving of feed they can make. This is a bad 
mistake. If you wish to make your farm produce well feed your grain 
to the stock. 

The writer sold stock, fed in the above manner, for $9.00 a hun- 
dred on foot. 



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CHAPTER XVIII 

Dairying 

very complete treatise on dairying will be found in this chap- 
ter, as it is formulated from papers from the best dairymen 
of eastern states, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and written by 
one who has had wide experience in this line. 

Selection and Breeding. 

1. Select the best cows that you have in your herd, or that you 
can buy, and dispose of the others. 

2. The best cow for dairy is the one that produces the greatest 
amount of butter fat in a year (for food consumed), when being 
rightly fed. 

3. It is a good plan to test your cows by weighing the amount of 
milk produced by them in a year. In this way it is possible to know 
how much butter fat each one produces. 

To renew or increase your herd, raise the heifer calves from your 
best cows. 

4. Use the very best dairy-bred sire you can get ! One that has 
a long line of ancestors that have been first class dairy animals. It 
is not profitable for a cow to go dry more than four to six weeks, but 
the young cows should be watched and not allowed to acquire the 
habit of drying up too soon. 

5. Keep a record of the time when the cows are bred, and allpw 
no guess work about the time of calving. 

Provide a roomy box stall and allow the cows to become accus- 
tomed to it a week prior to calving. The udder should receive prompt 
attention and the calf should be permitted to nurse its mother for two 
or three days. After separating the calf from the mother, feed the 
natural milk as soon as drawn, for a week or ten days. Then begin 
gradually to substitute skim milk with oil meal jelly stirred into it. 

Feed three times a day and not more than three quarts at a time 
until the calf gets started. 

The man whose ideal of a cow is high, and who practices good 
care, feed and gentleness, is sure to receive in milk and pleasure the 
highest profit that can be had from dairying. 

Care and Feed. 
Begin with the calf to develop the cow. The cow must be kept 
comfortable to do her best. She must not be compelled to work hard 
for food by treading all day over a scanty pasture, and she must have 
free access to salt, Do not drive her fast or let dogs chase her. Give 
her a warm, comfortable stall in the winter, with plenty of light and 
good ventilation. She should not be kept out of doors in cold, rainy 
or uncomfortable weather. 



276 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

"Do by your cows as you would like to be done by yourself." 
Give them plenty of pure water as often as they want it, at a 
temperature that suits them. They should never be allowed to wan- 
der off to places where there are sloughs with stagnant water or soft 
places where they would be apt to get mired. 

Feed. 

The better a cow is fed, up to her capacity to assimilate, the 
greater will be the profit. 

Feed a variety of good fodders, such as clover hay, ensilage and 
corn fodder, all the cow will eat. 

Milking. 

1. Always have cows in the stable when ready to milk. It is 
better than to have them chase one another around the yard. 

2. Have the stables clean, and have the cow clean, and be clean 
yourself or you cannot get clean milk. Before commencing to milk, 
brush all loose dirt from the sides and udder of the cow. Always milk 
a cow in the same manner, at the same time and speed. Any change 
will irritate and tend to excite her. Also milk in the same order and 
at the same time of day. Always milk a cow dry before leaving, but 
do not continue stripping after the milk is all drawn. 

Milking should be done with clean, dry hands. 

Care of Milk. 

1. Milking should be done in clean, dry, tin pails, and should not 
be exposed to foul air. 

2. Set for creaming as quickly as possible after milking. 

3. Strain the milk as soon as drawn from the cow. If taken to 
the factory there should be a ventilator in the top of the can and the 
can should be protected from the sun on the way. 

Butter Making. 

1. Good butter can only be made from good milk and this can 
only be had from healthy cows, kept on good, wholesome food with 
pure water to drink. 

2. The best way to separate the cream from the milk is by using 
the separator, as this gets nearly all the butter fat. 

3. The temperature of milk to separate well should be as high as 
80 degrees. It separates best immediately after being drawn from 
the cow before it has had time to cool. Immediately after separating 
the cream should be well aired and cooled down to about 60 degrees 
and held at that temperature till slightly acid and then churned. The 
usual temperature for churning is from 58 to 62 degrees, but no one 
can tell what temperature is best for his milk until after a trial. 

The churning should be done at as low a temperature as possible, 
and should not take longer than 45 to 50 minutes. When the butter 
is in granules the size of wheat kernels, the churn should be stopped, 
and some salt should be thrown in. Then give a few turns of the 
churn to make the butter float. Draw ofif the buttermilk and wash in 
two or three waters, then salt to taste. The average customer wants 



DAIRYING 277 

about an ounce of salt to a pound of butter. Work it once, then let it 
lie in a cool place from two to three hours, then rework and pack, and 
you will have no mottled or streaked butter. 

Winter Rations For Milch Cows. 

Feed for the silo, especially if intended for milch cows, should be 
cured. If not there will be a foul odor which will affect the quality 
of the milk. You cannot tell how much feed is needed by the flow of 
milk, for some milk will produce twice as much butter fat as other 
milk. The better quality of milk requires more feed to produce it. A 
good ration for a milk cow is as follows : 

2 parts ground corn or barley. 
4 parts ground oats. 

6 parts wheat bran. 

3 parts wheat middlings. 
1 part oil meal. 

This ration should be fed before the cows are milked, both morn- 
ing and evening, from 4 to 6 quarts to a feed. Also in the morning 
feed about twenty pounds of silo feed from drilled corn silage and 
clover hay as much as the cows will eat up clean three times a day. 
In the evening before milking it is advisable to feed each cow one 
peck of sliced roots, such as mangel wurzel, beets or carrots. One 
should be careful in watering milch cows in the winter to have the 
water of the right temperature, so that the cows will drink sufficient 
water to insure the greatest quantity of milk. When possible, it is 
most satisfactory to water cows inside on bad days. When this can 
not be done, the tank in the yard should be supplied with a heater, 
in which a fire should be built to take the chill off the water before the 
cows are turned out to drink. If this is not done the cows will often 
go thirsty rather than drink the icy water in the tanks. 

It is said that the amount of corn passing a steer unmasticated 
increases with the amount of feed. This excessive feeding is more 
than a waste of corn. It requires energy, a tax on the internal econ- 
omy to masticate, digest and assimilate food even if given in the least 
quantity required to accomplish a given purpose. If given in a larger 
quantity, so large that the system cannot make the use of it that 
nature intended, the burden on the system is so much the heavier, 
and therefore corn is wasted and the animal injured at the same time. 
This theory confirms the belief of some animal nutrition men that il 
now costs twice as much to make a pound of beef as is necessary. If 
this is only half true the total loss in this industry alone is appalling. 
Corn should never be fed alone, but should be ground and mixed with 
some lighter grains. 

Every farmer should burn his own charcoal, which should be 
crushed and fed. The best way to prepare the wood is. to cut it up 
into stove lengths. When it is dry, stack it up like a chimney about 
one foot in height. Then stand the wood on end around the chim- 
ney, place one tier on top of the first and so on till the pile is rounded 
off as a wood stack. Be sure to have wood close as possible. Cover 
the wood with about 3 inches of straw or leaves or hav or grass, then 



278 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

cover this with dirt about 6 inches deep. Start the fire through the 
chimney and after the fire is well started cover over the top of the 
chimney the same as the rest of the pile. Care must be taken that 
fire does not break out or the whole will burn into ashes. A close 
watch must be kept night and day till it has burned out, which may 
take a week or more, as the larger the pile the longer it takes. Never 
open it up before you are sure that the fire is all out, as a spark left 
in the coal may consume the whole pile when exposed to the air. Any 
kind of wood may be used, yet hardwood makes the best coal. 

Silo and Silage. 

There is no longer a doubt that the silo is the greatest factor in 
reducing the cost of the winter ration for our dairy cows. Probably 
more than 90 per cent of dairymen who begin to use silage continue to 
put it up year after year. This alone should be sufficient proof that 
the silo is a success. A man in southern Minnesota who has a dairy 
of 60 to 70 cows, built two silos, 16x30 feet, in the summer of 1901. 
After feeding the contents of these silos he remarked that the invest- 
ment had saved him a thousand dollars. The silo will do more to 
reduce the cost of feeding cows than will any other method we may 
adopt. 

Construction of the Silo. 

The silo which I will describe is circular in shape. The founda- 
tion is dug about two feet deep or so that it reaches below the frost 
line. Stone, gravel and Portland cement were used for the founda- 
tion. On top of the foundation was placed a circle of oak boards, 1 
inch thick, two thick lapped to break points, and sawed so as to lay 
to form a circle a scant 12 feet in diameter on the inside. These one 
by six pieces were nailed together and laid in cement to form a smooth 
base for resting the staves on. White pine staves were used of two 
lengths, 12 and 16 feet, and 5 inches wide and 1% inches thick. The 
silo was 28 feet deep. Ten hoops made of ^ round iron with %-inch 
ends threaded 8 inches, were used. Late in the season, after the silo 
was filled, a roof was put on, which was almost flat and can be easily 
removed at any time. 

Cost of Silo. 

Lime and cement for foundation $5.00 

Mason labor 3.60 

Staves 70.70 

Four 4x6's, bored for hoop supports 5.20 

Circle of oak for silL 3.10 

Ten hoops 10.00 

Staples and nails . .30 

Roof (lumber $5, tin $6) 11.00 

Labor 2 men 4 days 10.00 

$118.90 
Capacity of silo, sixty-two tons. 



DAIRYING 279 

The Cow For Small Farm Or City. 

A first class dairy cow for the small farmer or city people can be 
had by crossing a thoroughbred Ayrshire sire and a thoroughbred 
Jersey cow. The pedigree of sire and dam should extend back to 
ancestors for dairying purposes. A thoroughbred Ayrshire bull and 
a thoroughbred Jersey cow with a pedigree extending back to ances- 
try of the short horn cattle are the best to produce the all-purpose 
cattle for the large farmer. A cow thus procured has a value far 
above all other breeds ; in fact, no other breed can for a moment be 
considered its equal. They are a great dairy breed. While it is true 
that the dairy qualities of the short horn have been neglected, I have 
bred short horn cows that gave 32 quarts of milk per day which con- 
tained a large per cent of butter fat. By crossing these two breeds, 
viz., a great milk giver and a great butter maker, the dairyman will 
have a gold mine of his own. Cows thus produced made 18^4 pounds 
of butter per week throughout the season of 1908. 

The Ayrshire are, as a rule, most excellent for milk and butter. 
The Jersey gives a rich, small mess of milk. By crossing the Ayrshire 
with the Jersey, and also with the Guernsey, the quantity and quality 
of the milk will be largely increased and the calves will make much 
better veal for the market. 

It has been estimated that the average cow yields approximately 
160 pounds of butter per year, while under properly applied scientific 
breeding and management 200 pounds of butter can be made yearly. 

The quantity of milk and butter secured from a cow and its cost 
of production must, of course, depend upon the care and feed used. 

On the other hand, when the city people can get the farm prod- 
uce direct from the farmer, fresh and sweet, they are very glad to 
receive and pay a good price for it. I have been asked by city people 
if I knew of a farmer that would furnish a private family with poultry, 
fresh eggs, butter, milk, etc., by the year, as they were willing to pay 
the farmer's price. Milk is sometimes furnished to families by milk- 
men and from large dairies that is not fit for use, and often contains 
tubercle bacilli from tuberculous cattle. The wide spread of tuberculo- 
sis among dairy cows and the concealed character of the disease make 
it impossible to be sure that a cow is free from tuberculosis until she 
has been proven so by the use of the tuberculin test. Now for the pro- 
tection of the public health it seems very necessary that regulations 
should be made requiring that either all milk should be obtained from 
cows entirely free from tuberculosis, stabled, milked, pastured, etc., 
in an environment free from tuberculous infection, or that it must be 
sterilized before it is used as a beverage or in the manufacture of but- 
ter and other dairy products. The tuberculous cow is a serious men- 
ace to the public health. 

Dairy Notes. 

The best cow for dairy is the one that produces the greatest 
amount of butter fat in a year (for food consumed), when being 
rightly fed. 

A famous Holstein cow, owned by Mr. Schilling, of Northfield, 



280 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Minnesota, closed her official seven and 30 day test by making a new 
record for Minnesota. She was 6 years old and gave in one day 108.9 
pounds of milk and made 4.46 pounds of butter. In seven days she 
gave 747 lbs. of milk and made 29.43 pounds of butter. 

The only correct way to ascertain the work of a cow is by the 
use of the scales and the Babcock test, which must be continuously 
used for one year. 

Read current dairy literature and keep posted on new ideas. 

Provide water in abundance, keep it accessible and always pure, 
fresh, but not too cold. 

Feed liberally, and use only fresh, palatable feed stufifs ; in no 
case should decomposed or moldy material be used. 

Cornell Station, Utica, New York, at the present time, has a dairy 
cow, pure bred Holstein, that produced 36 pounds of butter in one 
week. 

It is not so much the amount of butter fat a cow produces as what 
it costs to produce it that determines the profit. 




5 2 



CHAPTER XIX 

Horse Department 

Horse Breeding and Horse Lovers. 

HORSES have been the companions of man since the beginning- 
of time. Many men have declared that the horse is next to 
man in intelligence. Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage said, "There 
ought to be a heaven for horses." George Washington (the 
father of our country) was much devoted to his horse. 

Ex-President Rutherford B. Hayes, who lived at his home near 
the little Ohio town of Fremont, on a farm, used to enjoy his broad 
acres by walking over them, or when on his favorite horse "Whitey" 
he would ride for miles and miles. "Whitey" was the horse that car- 
ried him through the civil war. He also regarded the trees on his 
farm with an almost paternal fondness, knowing as he did the individ- 
ual history of each one. The closest friend of Ex-President Pierce was 
"Ethan," his horse. This horse, the farmer president used to say, 
was more sympathetic than many of his human friends. One day 
Pierce was traveling alone, in a buggy, drawn by "Ethan," when he 
noticed a thunder storm approaching, he said, "We must be jogging 
along, Ethan, or the rain will catch us." Without another word or 
slap of whip or rein Ethan broke into a run for home, and President 
Pierce always maintained that the horse understood what he had said. 
Who doubts it? 

Gen. Robert E. Lee was very fond of his horse, which he rode 
through the Civil War. When he died, and his body in the casket 
was brought forth, covered as it was with flowers, the old charger, 
which Lee had loved so long, was led up beside the casket as they 
were bearing the body away for burial. The horse put its face down 
upon the casket and gave a loud whinny, by which he showed that 
he understood and was sorrowful. 

It is an admitted fact that "kind and gentle treatment makes a 
kind and gentle horse." Therefore a severe whipping may forever 
ruin a horse of fine blood and highly nervous organization. Let good 
sense be used then, teach the horse by patient firmness as you would 
teach a child to walk, talking pleasantly and encouragingly and 
caressing him frequently. Give him an occasional lump of sugar, and 
he will soon learn to love you and a lasting friendship will be estab- 
lished to the credit and advantage of both horse and man. 

The Percheron-Norman. 

The Percheron is an improved variety of the old Norman war 
horse that was used by knights in early days. They are natives of La 
Perche, in the northwestern part of France. They stand from 15 to 
163^ hands high, and are almost always gray. They are strongly 



282 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

built, with heavy shoulders and powerful hindquarters, large joints, 
sound, big, bony legs, and excellent feet. This breed of horses are 
thought to be a cross between the Arabian and the old Norman draft 
horse. The district of La Perche has long been celebrated for supe- 
rior horses. The breeders naturally seek to retain the activity of the 
Arabian and the strength of the Norman. This can be effected by 
crossing a particular kind of the Arabian stallion with Norman mares. 
It has been estimated by those engaged in the business that several 
hundred Percheron stallions have been imported into the United 
States within the last two years. As this breed possesses most of the 
qualities of strength and activity, and the form to use these gifts to 
better advantage than any other breed, it follows that in a few years 
we shall be in the possession of a very superior class of working 
horses. In regard to the origm of the Norman war horse, from which 
the Percheron sprung, there is nothing positively known. They have 
existed in France for centuries, and have fixed characteristics that 
show that they must have been bred in the animal for many genera- 
tions. The Normans have formed the basis of every draft horse that 
has existed in Europe or America since the foundation of the breed. 

The American Trotter. 

That "blood will tell" in the breeding and development of the trot- 
ter is conclusively shown by the history of the origin of the different 
trotting favorites. It is a fact that nearly all trotters of any degree 
of speed trace back to some recognized strain of blood, and while 
there may be exceptions, where no definite traces can be made, yet the 
presumption is that the pace came by inheritance and not by chance. 
These facts coincide with the laws of heredity. This being the case, 
it is interesting to study the origin of the numerous trotting families 
and their branches, in America, and follow their record of increase 
and development. 

The Father of Trotters. 

The father of nearly all our trotting families was the imported 
horse Messenger, brought from England in 1788 and taken to Phila- 
delphia. The lineage of this noble sire traces back in the male line 
to the Darley Arabian, the sire of Flying Childers, but with a sus- 
picion of an out-cross through his great grandsire Sampsan. On the 
side of the dam the strain reaches Cade, by Godolphin Aral>ian. 

All accounts concur in representing Messenger as being a horse 
of very superior, though not of handsome form, and possessing extra- 
ordinary power and spirit. Three other horses imported at Ihe same 
time had to be assisted and supported from the ship, while Messenger, 
with head up, tail extended, charged down the plank, carrying a negro 
on each side, whose combined strength failed to check him until he 
had trotted some distance up the street. 

His color was gray, which became lighter with age ; he was fifteen 
hands three inches in height, with a large bony head, and a rather 
short, straight neck. His windpipe and nostrils were nearly twice the 
usual size, while his withers were low and shoulders upright, but deep 
and strong. His loins were strong, and the quarters were very mus- 




U. o 



HORSEDEPARTMENT 283 

cular, while his hocks and knees were unusually large, yet the com- 
mon bones were flat and clean. He carried his legs under him and 
was always ready for action. 

This description shows but little of the form of the thoroughbred, 
yet is typical of the form of his trotting descendants. This form, as 
well as the extraordinary vitality and endurance peculiar to him, he 
impressed upon his progeny, which being persistently driven and 
trained to trot, became more intensified and habituated as to gait, 
until we have as the result of this skill of man, and this strain of 
blood, the final development of the "trotting horse of America," un- 
rivalled and unapproached in his achievements on the turf. 

Messenger died on Long Island in 1808, at the age of 28, after 
having lived in the vicinity of New York City for 15 years. The 
roadsters and trotting horses throughout that section show the im- 
press of his blood. 

Prominent Sons of Messenger. 

The following were the prominent sons of Messenger, to whom 
we trace many pedigrees : Mambrino, Bishop's Hambletonian, Og- 
den's Messenger, Engineer, Commander, Winthrop Messenger, and 
Mount Holly. Some of his daughters have contributed to the differ- 
ent families qualities which have given them prominence. The grand 
dam of Young Bashaw, the source of the Bashaws and the Clays, was 
a daughter of Messenger. We will trace some of the sons and their 
descendants to more modern times, commencing with 

Mambrino's Descendants. 

Abdallah. — Of this king of stallions, "rough to look at," a son of 
Mambrino out of the mare Amazonia, and grandson of Messenger, 
too much cannot be said. While he was alive he was not appreciated ; 
in fact, was so neglected that he yielded no profit in the stud, and was 
sold for thirty-five dollars to a fisherman, who, not being able to 
work him on account of his temper, allowed him to starve to death. 
His greatest laurels were reaped years afterwards through the honors 
bestowed on his son. During late years his blood has been highly 
prized in pedigrees, either through male or female line. 

Wm. M. Rysdyk's Hambletonian. — This son of Abdallah was the 
greatest progenitor of trotters the world ever saw. He was foaled in 
1849 and died in 1876. His dam was by imported Bellfounder, and 
his second dam by Hambletonian, son of Messenger, and third dam by 
Messenger. Thus he possessed Messenger blood on side of dam, as 
well as sire. He sired 1,325 colts, and his services paid his owner over 
$100,000. Among his sons that have made a reputation are the stal- 
lions Volunteer, Alexander's Abdallah, Messenger Duroc, Happy 
Medium, Jay Gould, Walkill Chief, Geo. Wilkes, and Edward Everett, 
while the trotters Dexter, Nettie, Gazelle, Mattie and others are found 
among the lower records. He was the grandsire of Goldsmith Maid, 
Rarus, Gloster, Judge Fullerton, Almont, Great Eastern, Bodine, 
Powers, Dame Trot, etc. 

Mambrino Paymaster. — This is another son of Mambrino, who 
was the sire of Mambrino Chief, out of a supposed Messenger Duroc 



284 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

mare. Mambrino Chief was the sire of Lady Thorn, Mambrino 
Patchen, Mambrino Pilot, Ericsson, Bay Chief, North Star Mam- 
brino, Woodford Mambrino and others. 

Almack. — This horse was a son of Mambrino also, and was the 
founder of the Champion family, starting- with Grinnell's Champion. 

Descendants of Bishop's Hambletonian. 

This is another son of Messenger and was the sire of Harris's 
Hambletonian. This horse was not only a sire of some celebrated 
trotters in his day, but many of his descendants are found among the 
low records. His blood is interwoven with the Blackhawks of Ver- 
mont, where he stood for years. 

Descendants of Other Sons of Messenger. 

Engineer was grandsire of Lady Suffolk and Dutchman of the 
early trotting days. From Winthrop's Messenger came a majority of 
the trotting stock in Maine. Ogden's Messenger is popularly sup- 
posed to be the sire of Tippoo, the ancestor of the Royal George 
family. 

Mr. Edward H. Bramhall, of New York City, owned a mare of 
the Messenger breed that traveled 90 miles between sunrise and sun- 
set during the summer days. 

History of Trotting Performances. 
The First Races of Record. 

The first trotting race we have any authentic account of occurred 
at Boston in 1818. Boston Blue trotted against time and made a mile 
inside of three minutes, the exact time of which is not known. It was 
then considered a great performance. Previous to this there had been 
a growing taste for trotters and roadsters, gradually encroaching on 
saddle horses, but no public trials had been made. Racing horses, 
however, had always been popular, especially in the south. Virginia 
and Kentucky were the nurseries of the noted thoroughbreds. Gen- 
eral Jackson did much to aid in improving the stock. 

Six years later, 1824, Albany Pony trotted, to saddle, one mile, 
on Jamaica turnpike, in 2:40. The next horse we have any account of 
is Top Gallant, iDy Hambletonian. We have a more complete record 
of his performances than of any other trotter of that period. He was 
foaled in 1808 and trotted his principal races after he was twenty 
years old. In 1828, in a match against Whalebone, over the Hunting 
Park Course, Philadelphia, he trotted four four-mile heats in 11:16, 
11:06, 11:17, and 12:15, or the whole 16 miles in 45:54. In 1830, when 
twenty-two years of age, he trotted twelve miles over the same course 
in 38 minutes; and in 1831 made two miles in 5:19. Betsy Baker, by 
Mambrino, beat Top Gallant three miles, under saddle, carrying 50 
pounds, in 8:16. 

It was said that she could, when sound, trot twenty miles in an 
hour. Trouble, by Hambletonian, trotted two miles in 5:15; and Sir 
Peter, by same sire, trotted three miles, in harness, in 8:16. Whale- 
bone, another of Hambletonian colts, trotted three miles in 8:18. 



H O R S E D E P A R T ^I E N T 285 

Screw Driver, by Mt. Holly, in a race with Betsy Baker, trotted two 
three mile heats in 8:02 and 8:10. 

About this period the length of the heats began to be reduced to 
one mile, instead of the longer races, until at the present time it is 
rare to hear of any thing else. In 1834 Edwin Forrest trotted, under 
saddle, one mile in 2:36, at Trenton, New Jersey; and on Long Island, 
during the same year, trotted a mile in 2:31^^, which was the best 
time ever made up to that date. Dutchman, in 1839, made his great 
record of three miles, under saddle, in 7 :'h2y2, one mile of which was 
made in 2:28, the best time made to that date. 

In -1847 Highland Maid trotted a mile, in harness, on Long Island, 
in 2 -.U . She was originally a pacer. 

In 1838 Lady Suffolk, as game a mare as ever stood on iron, made 
her first appearance, and in 1848 made a record of 2:26, which was 
considered a little less than miraculous. In 1859 Flora Temple, then 
14 years old, trotted a mile, in harness, at Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 
2:19^. This was without a parallel for eight years. In 1867 Dexter 
trotted a mile, in harness, at Buffalo, in 2:17^. This was thought 
to be the lowest possible notch attainable by any horse. But in 1874 
came a flyer, the "Queen of the Turf," Goldsmith Maid, who eclipsed 
all former performances by trotting a mile, in harness, at Majestic 
Park, Boston, in 2:14. This stood unrivaled for four years. 

In 1878, however, that game horse, Rarus, trotted a mile, in har- 
ness, at Buffalo, in 2:13^. This was a great record, and when we 
remember that they used the high wheel cart in those days and also 
remember the poor condition of their tracks — as compared with ours 
of today — we see that we are not so very far ahead of them. This 
horse Rarus made a brilliant career during the year 1878 and was 
credited as follows: Fastest mile in harness, 2:13% ; fastest first heat, 
2:14; fastest second heat, 2:13^; fastest third heat, 2:13%; fastest 
fourth heat, 2:13^; fastest three consecutive heats, 2:15, 2:13^ and 
2:13%. He may fairly be said to have won the sceptre from the old 
mare who held it for so many years. All this had been accomplished 
in one season, and in addition to this he had trotted three heats in 2:14. 

Besides accomplishing the above feats he entered into a handicap 
race at the opening of the Chicago Driving Park, October, 1878. He 
went to wagon ; Hopeful, one of his opponents, to harness ; and Great 
Eastern, his other opponent, to saddle. This race was won by Hope- 
ful in 2:17%, 2:17 and 2:17. Rarus was privately timed and made his 
three heats to wagon in 2:18>^, 2:18 and 2:18, it being no record, how- 
ever. During the same races the trotter Hopeful made three mile 
heats to wagon in 2:16>^, 2:17 and 2:17 — the fastest time to wagon 
on record. During the first heat he had a running horse accompany- 
ing him part way. 

It is interesting to note the growth of the trotting element dur- 
ing the past few years, as well as to observe the lowering.of the aver- 
age time of mile heats. In 1872 there were ninety-six horses who had 
made a record of 2:30 and better; in 1873 there were one hundred and 
six ; while 1874 had one hundred and fifty-three ; in 1875 the number 
was one hundred and eighty-four; in 1876 it was two hundred and 



286 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

twenty-five ; in 1877, two hundred and eighty-four horses made rec- 
ords of 2:30 and under. Of the latter number, two hundred and six- 
teen were in 2:25 class, one hundred and six in 2:23 class, thirty-three 
in 2:20 class, and 19 in 2:19. 

Since 1877 the record has been gradually lowered, due in part to 
the bettering of the race track and in part to better understanding of 
breeding and better trained drivers. From 1878 to 1908 we find horses 
trotting as follows, to wagon : 

20 miles, Controller, in San Francisco, Cal., 1878; time, 58:57. 

3 miles, Ed Bryan, in Point Breeze, Philadelphia, 1905 ; time, 
7:30>4. 

2 miles, Ed Bryan, in Point Breeze, Philadelphia, 1907; time, 4:43. 

Best 2 heats, Lou Dillon, in Memphis, Tenn., 1903 ; time, 2.04^. 

1 mile in a race, Lou Dillon, in Memphis, Tenn., 1903 ; time, 
2:04%. 

1 mile against time, Lou Dillon, in Memphis, Tenn., 1903; time 
2:00. 

The world's best trotting records : 

1 mile, Lou Dillon, in Memphis, Tenn., 1905 ; time, 1 :58^. 

1 mile, Cresceus, in Brighton Beach, N. Y., 1901 ; time, 2:03%. 

1 mile on % mile track, George G., in Allentown, Pa., 1907; time, 

Best 2 heats. Sweet Marie, in Syracuse, N. Y., 1906; time, 2:03%. 

The world's best pacing records : 

1 mile, Dan Patch, St. Paul, Minn., 1906; time, 1:55. 

1 mile. Prince Alert, New York, N. Y., 1903; time, 1 :57. 

1 mile, Dariel, Memphis, Tenn., 1903; time, 2:00%. 

1 mile in race. Star Pointer, Springfield, 111., 1897; time, 2:00%. 

1 mile. Minor Heir, Lexington, Ky., 1908; time, 2:00%. 

Pacing to wagon : 

1 mile, Dan Patch, Memphis, Tenn., 1903 ; time, 1 :57%. 

1 mile, Angus Pointer, Memphis, Tenn., 1904; time, 2:04%. 

Arabian Horses. 

A thoroughbred horse is one which traces back to Arabian blood. 

There was a law which forbade the transportation of the Arabian 
mares to any other country. If any of these mares were ever sold the 
penalty for this offence, according to the Arabian law, was a long term 
in prison. 

The Arabian blood flows in the veins of the fleetest horses in the 
world, according to the time test. 

The only horses ever known to be taken from Arabia to other 
countries were the sires. 

The writer at one time owned, drove and worked some of these 
horses whose dams descended from trotting families. Their sires 
were imported horses. Gray Percheron and Clydesdale. 

Stock Needed On the Farm. 

The farmer should have at least 3 working horses, weighing to- 
gether 4,400 lbs., or an average of 1,400 lbs. each, and every farmer 
should keep a general purpose horse. 




a 

be 



H O R S E D E P A R T M E N T 287 

A thoroughbred mare should always be kept on the farm for the 
purpose of raising colts, and also thoroughbred sires should always 
be used for improving all kinds of farm horses and farm stock in 
general. 

The General Purpose Horse On the Farm. 

This horse should be bred for quickness of action ; a fast walking 
gait that can travel 5 miles an hour when not loaded. Such horses 
have been bred in the eastern states by crossing mares that can be 
traced back to trotting families such as the imported horse "Messen- 
ger," Hambletonian and the Morgan families can be improved by 
breeding mares or dams to imported sires, such as the gray Percheron. 
A cross between the Arabian horse and the old Norman draft horse 
makes the latter much quicker in speed and also renders it very much 
more stylish of gait. The predominant color is the dapple gray in- 
herited from the Arabian blood. Also the imported Clydesdale sires, 
when bred to American mares whose pedigree is traced back to the 
noted trotting families, produce a wonderful cross. These horses be- 
come fully matured when 5 years old and weigh from 1,300 to 1,400 
lbs., and some of them have been known to trot a mile in four minutes. 

Raising and Breaking Colts. 

Farmers should note the scarcity of horses and give more atten- 
tion to the raising of colts. The east has for a number of years past 
depended on the west for their supply of farm horses. And as the 
great western ranches are being changed into grain and fruit farms 
this will make the supply of farm horses very short. A good farm 
team of horses brings from $500 to $600 at present and a colt may be 
raised for about the same amount of money as a cow, but at three 
years old. is generally worth as much as three or four cows. The 
colts should be from sires and dams that are of good ancestors, free 
from any diseases, such as lung trouble, heaves, etc. The mother 
should have ample stable accommodations when needed, and as the 
profit of raising colts is so large, and the demand for them is becoming 
so great, the farmer should keep the mares which are kind and good 
to work on the farm, and also because they are the best for breeding 
business. 

The best feed for the brood mare is good oats, barley and hay. 
The dam and colt should be fed the same kind of grain until the colt 
is three or four weeks old. The first winter's feed for the young colt 
is early clover hay, cured and placed in the barn before rain falls. 

The colt should also be liberally fed with oats and wheat bran. 
This will increase its development and growth. The stable for dam 
and colt should be warm and have plenty of sunlight and be bedded 
with plenty of dry straw. There should also be a yard s'o that the 
young colt may have exercise on pleasant days. It should have a 
good brushing every day, and plenty of salt and charcoal mixed to- 
gether and placed in his feed box. A very good feed for young colts 
the first winter after weaning them is fresh cow's milk. 



288 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Breaking Colts. 

A halter is put on the colt when 10 days old, and whenever the 
mother is driven the colt is led at her side. I have never found any 
trouble in teaching a colt to lead in that way, and long before it is 
weaned it will be perfectly halter broken. 

Bitting the Colt and Training To Harness. 
In the warm days of spring when the colt is a year old, let the bit- 
ting process be commenced ; and if the colt has been handled from his 
birth he will usually submit to the bitting process as quietly as he 
will to any other training. After putting on the bitting fixtures he 
should be turned loose in a safe yard and given an hour or so to be- 
come familiar with the harness. He should be checked up gradually 
until the proper carriage of the head is attained. After a day or two 
a cord 10 to 12 ft. in length may be tied to the bits and the colt allowed 
to train or exercise in a circle or around you. This should be gone 
over time and again, and when he is two years old he may be har- 
nessed and hitched beside his mother and driven quietly about, at first 
with only the harness on, then to a light carriage. From 3 to 4 years 
old a colt should be driven with exceeding care. 

Diseases and Remedies. 

This chapter does not attempt to give any but the most common 
diseases and remedies. When possible it is always best to get a re- 
liable veterinarian. However, it is often possible to give the animal 
temporary relief before professional assistance arrives. 

How Medicines Are Applied. 

Medicines are applied in any one or more of the following ways : 

1. Through the mouth. By means of pills, powders or drenches. 
If giving by drench use the drenching bottle, or a strong ale bottle 
will answer. If the medicine is very strong, as turpentine, add enough 
oil or milk beaten with eggs to prevent irritating the membranes of 
the mouth and throat. 

2. Through the nose. The most common form is simply the 
inhaling of medicated vapors. For this, a sack is hung over the horse's 
nose and steam is introduced into it. Holes must be cut opposite the 
animal's nostrils, as the vapor must not be too hot. Vinegar and 
water or scalded bran, in which carbolic acid has been put, are very 
good for inhaling for troubles in the lungs and throat. 

3. On the skin and under it. On the skin, as poultices, etc., and 
under it, by means of the hypodermic syringe. 

4. Through the rectum. For worms in bowels, to move the 
bowels and intestines, for injections and when medicines cannot be 
given through the mouth they are administered through the rectum. 
Do not use a pump to give an injection. A better way is to use a hose 
and funnel. 

Toothache Or Decayed Teeth. 
This is rare, but if found it is from decayed teeth and is caused 
by biting something hard and breaking off some part of the tooth. It 



HORSEDEPARTMENT 289 

can be detected by the action of the horse. When eating or drinking 
he will suddenly stop and throw his head to one side as though in 
pain. Sometimes bad odors in the mouth indicate trouble. 

The bad tooth can be located by tapping with a small hammer 
until the horse flinches. The extraction will require a veterinarian. 

Broken Wind Or Heaves. 

Do not use an animal in this condition for breeding. 

This is quite common and though the locality of the disease is 
known, much difTerence of opinion exists as to the cause. 

The symptoms are well defined. The double movement in the 
flanks when coughing and the inflated nostril and short cough or 
wheeze. This is worse during close, damp weather. If the animal 
has been "doped" by tricksters the symptoms can be shown up by 
watering well and then driving up a steep hill or on a hard road. 

Treatment. — There is no cure if once deep seated, but care in 
feeding will help. In early cases more good can be done. Water al- 
ways before feeding. Then dampen the hay, which should be the best 
obtainable. Feed this with grain, such as corn or oats mixed with 
some root chopped fine, as carrot, potatoes, etc. Do not work right 
after eating. Pasturing relieves the horse. Dr. Geo. A. Waterman, 
of the Michigan State Agricultural College, gives the following 
remedy : 

Arsenic and hydrochloric acid in solution (liquor arsenici hydro- 
chloricus) : give 1 tablespoonful with bran or oats 3 times a day for 2 
weeks ; then twice a day for 2 weeks ; then once a day for several 
weeks. 

Diarrhoea is caused by exposure to cold, low, damp stables, musty 
food, stagnant water, etc. 

Treatment. — If from any of the above causes they should be lo- 
cated and removed. If caused by some irritation in the intestines, 
give a quart of oil and the trouble will gradually disappear. 

Should it still continue, give starch water, or water in which 
scorched wheat flour is put. 

In very severe cases give the following: Corrosive sublimate, 5 
grains, water, Yj pint, every 2 hours until relieved. 

Worms and Bots. 
There are three kinds of worms : 

1. Long round, 4 to 12 in. in length. 

Treatment must be vigorous. Use 3 times a day arsenious acid, 
5 to 10 grains, for ten days, beginning with the small dose and increas- 
ing to the largest. On the 11th day give linseed oil, 1 pt., and croton 
oil, 30 drops. Shake well. Mix the arsenious acid well with damp 
food. 

2. Pin Worms. Infest the large intestines. Are noticed in the 
manure. Use injections through the rectum, first with water and then 
with copperas 1 oz., water 3 qts. Repeat every 2nd or 3rd day. 

3. Tape worms are not very serious in the horse, but if found 
are present in the small intestines. 



290 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Fast animal for 12 to 18 hours, then give areca nut (powdered) 
Yz ounce, oil male fern 2 drachms, raw linseed oil Yz pint. Follow 
this within 2 or 2 hours by ^ lb. of epsom salts, then feed as usual. 
Repeat, if necessary, in a week. 

Bots. — Medical treatment is not satisfactory and if they are once 
in the stomach they will have to take their natural course. They 
loosen in May or June and are given off in the manure. Prevent the 
hatching of the eggs by washing them off the animal with soap and 
warm HoO. Bots never eat through the stomach. They do harm 
sometimes by clogging the stomach. 

Azoturia. — Is not well understood by veterinarians. Always oc- 
curs with overfed and under-exercised horses. Symptoms are very 
definite. A wellfed animal that has not been exercised is taken out 
and driven. After going a short distance the animal slacks up and 
perspires, trembles if standing, and if down cannot use hind limbs. 
The muscles of the loins are swollen and hard. 

Stop as soon as the first symptoms show and blanket warmly. 
Do not try to move unless weather conditions make it absolutely neces- 
sary. Then get to nearest tjarn. If stopped at once the attack may 
be light when just a little further exercise may turn the scale. Often, 
just to see what will happen, the driver goes a little further, thus turn- 
ing a mild into a fatal case. Send for veterinarian at once, if possible. 
Give following: Fluid extract of belladonna 1 teaspoon, bromide of 
potash Yi oz., water Y^ pint. Repeat in 2 or 3 hours. Then give a 
purgative: 1 oz. of aloes in 1 pt. of linseed gruel, or ^ lb. of epsom 
salts. 

If bowels don't move freely in 24 hours, give 1 pt. of oil. 

Apply hot blanket on the loins. If animal is down he must be 
rolled over on chest and the urine must be drawn by a catheter 4 or 5 
times a day. 

Prevention. — By exercising unused horses at least every other 
day and cutting down their rations. 

Epidemic — Influenza Epizootic. 

Professor Law, of Cornell University, New York, considers this a 
specific typhus fever, complicated with inflammation of the mucus 
membranes lining the air passages and less frequently of the lungs, 
pleura, heart, liver, stomach and bowels, and even the muscles and lin- 
ing of joints. There is no doubt about its contagion. 

Symptoms. — The attack is usually sudden and the horse, which 
one-half hour before seemed well, suddenly drops his head, ears and 
lips, and stands with one or two legs semi-fiexed, to bring relief. 

Treatment. — Its treatment consists in a warm box stall, warm 
blankets and laxative food. Remove costiveness by copious injections 
of warm water, to which may be added two drachms of aloes. Follow 
with liquor acetate of ammonia, 3 fluid ounces ; extract belladonna, one 
drachm ; mix. Give twice daily in a pint of water. Much more de- 
pends on warmth and care than on a great deal of medicine. 







a — "5 



a ^ 
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p 


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aj 


3 


^ 



HORSE DEPARTMENT 291 

Distemper. 
Treatment. — Distemper has about 3 weeks to run its course; all 
the medicine required is a light dose of epsom salts, say 4 to 6 ozs., and 
good nursing. Give warm bran mashes, linseed or oatmeal gruel ; 
keep the animal warm, and rub the legs with cloths dipped in hot 
water ; a tablespoon of mustard in the water would be beneficial if the 
legs seem to be weak and numb or cold. 

Colic. 

Take 1^ pints of lard, heat quite warm, place in a bottle and 
drench the horse with it. This can be used when other remedies can- 
not be had. 

Another Good Remedy. 

Give one heaping tablespoonful of soda in one quart of buttermilk. 
Put the soda into the buttermilk just when ready to give; repeat in 
half an hour, if necessary. 

For Wind Colic. 

Chloroform, Yz ounce; linseed oil, raw, 1 quart; mix and give as 
one dose. 

Cribbing and Wind Sucking. 

This is not a disease in itself, but an exceeding bad habit. The 
manger, post, fence, or other objects are caught with the teeth, and 
the horse bears down until the neck is altered in position so as to 
form a temporary vacuum in the pharynx, when air rushes in to fill it. 

Treatment. — Put the horse in a box stall and feed him from the 
floor, giving feed from a pail that is removed as soon as empty, leaving 
nothing he can get hold of. A strap buckled tight around the throat — 
tight enough to prevent the action — is another means employed. Put- 
ting red pepper, aloes, and other such ingredients on edges of manger 
where horse can crib is also resorted to. Another way is to put a 
muzzle on with bars across the nose that will allow eating, but will 
prevent grasping the manger in his teeth. With young horses having 
this trouble give regular exercises. 

Lockjaw. 
Cure for Lockjaw. — Bleed in the third bar of the mouth and 
drench with strong, salt water. 

Spavin. 

Corrosive sublimate, 2 drachms ; lard, 1 ounce ; cantharides, 2 
drachms. 

This blister should be thoroughly rubbed in with the hand for 
about ten minutes. Twenty-four hours afterward apply a little oil or 
vaseline, and repeat night and morning until the blister heals. 

Scratches. 

Wash the affected parts with strong soap suds and apply freely 
Gumbault's Caustic Balsam. Have known this to cure when all other 
remedies had failed. 



292 



WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 



Sprains. 
Sprain. — Bandage with salt and vinegar as warm as the horse will 
stand it. 

Sweeny Or Curb. 
Sweeny or Curb. — Or any hard lump, use the following liniment : 
Sweet oil, cantharides, hartshorn, origanum, camphor, equal parts of 
each. 

Wounds Or Cuts Application. 
Alcohol, 1 pint ; camphor, 1 ounce ; saltpeter, 1 ounce ; gum 
guaiacum, 1 ounce. 

Chicken Lice On Horses. 
Take one quart of fresh lard, mix with carbolic acid crystals 1 
drachm. 

To Protect Horses From Flies. 
Take the common smartweed and make a strong solution by boil- 
ing in water. When this is cooled apply to the legs, neck and other 
parts of the body with a brush or sponge, and neither flies or any kind 
of insects will trouble them within the next (24) twenty-four hours. 

Sometimes chicken lice make the horses rub their manes and tails. 
They are very annoying to horses. Chickens should never be allowed 
to roost in or near the horse barns. 

To Thicken the Mane and Tail of a Horse. 

Wash thoroughly with castile soap and warm water once a week. 
Then take the common kerosene oil and mix it wth equal parts of 
sweet oil. Or a good substitute is mercurial ointment. Rub this into 
the roots of the mane and tail as often as once a week. 



CHAPTER XX 

Frosts and Sprays 

Facts About Frosts. 

THE total damage wroug^ht in the United States by the frosts of 
spring and fall runs into many millions of dollars. Naturally 
most of this is unavoidable, but a knowledge of the conditions 
governing frosts, and where possible the use of proper measures 
of protection, would reduce this sum materially and for the individual 
may easily mean the difference between profit and loss. 

What Is Frost? 

Frost, as we all commonly recognize it, is a condensation of 
moisture on plants in the shape of small ice crystals. Usually the air 
a short distance above the earth is several degrees above the freez- 
ing point at the time that frosts occur. The plants and the earth it- 
self, however, radiate heat very rapidly after sunset and may reach a 
point where the surface is belovi^ the temperature of freezing. Im- 
mediately the moisture in the air is deposited on these surfaces in the 
form of ice crystals. 

Location. 

In setting out to plant a given area, or in searching for a suitable 
piece of ground on which to place a given crop, the danger of frost 
should receive careful study. Many crops can stand heavy frosts. 
Naturally these may be raised in areas that are not particularly free 
from spring and fall frosts. Other crops which are especially tender 
should never be attempted except in suitable locations. 

Any valley within the temperate zone that is more or less shut 
in at its lower end is likely to prove a settling point for cold air. On 
the other hand, hillsides sufficiently elevated above such valleys are 
protected by the very fact that the cold air drains away from them 
and are likely to be comparatively free from damaging frosts. Due 
recognition of these two facts should be made in deciding what crop 
to grow or what land to choose. 

Factors That Influence Frosts. 

It is everywhere recognized that clear, still nights are particu- 
larly apt to be frosty. The reason for this is easily found. Clouds 
serve as a blanket to the layer of atmosphere just above the earth 
and hold the heat. The radiation of heat from the earth and from 
plants goes on very much more slowly when the sky is o.vercast with 
clouds. 

Winds tend to prevent frosts, because they stir up the air and 
keep it from forming in layers. If the air is kept constantly stirred 
by winds, the cold air next the earth will be mixed with the warmer 



294 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

air above and the freezing temperature at the surface of the earth 
will not be reached. 

Protection Against Frosts. 

Anything that will serve as a blanket to assist the earth and the 
plants to retain the heat they have absorbed during the day will tend 
to prevent frost. This blanket may be water vapor, a heavy cloud of 
smoke, or such artificial coverings as straw, boards, earth, etc. With 
low-growing plants like the strawberry, straw may be used to great 
advantage as a protection against frost. The value of one crop saved 
in this way will pay for the labor and cost many times over. Garden 
vegetables of tender varieties may often be protected by plowing so 
as to cover their tops with earth. 

No practical means have yet been devised for protecting extens- 
ive areas of field crops such as potatoes from frost, but in vine and 
tree fruits, where the value of the crop is so much greater, protective 
measures may profitably be employed. 

Winter Protection for Large Shrubbery and Fruit Trees. 

For all kinds of large shrubbery, when the canes are too large 
to bend in, extend the branches out some distance from the trunks. 
Then carefully lift the branches and bend them toward the trunk, 
being careful not to break in bending them. Then bind with a 
strong cord or burlap. Place the outer branches in position. En- 
close the shrubbery with long corn stalks, standing them all around 
the shrub, a thickness of from 12 to 24 inches or even more, the 
thicker the better, then bind with cord or burlap. Bind from the 
ground up, the first tie being about 18 in. from the ground. Tie in 
the center and at the top. They should be bound together as close 
as possible, so as to be entirely protected from the wind and snow. 
The last band should be within 18 inches of the top of the corn stalks 
and drawn very closely together, so that no water can reach the shrub 
in case of a beating rain. 

All kinds of shrubbery and fruit trees protected in this manner 
by the use of corn stalks will live through the severest weather, where 
they have long, cold winters and deep snows. Such shrubbery as 
grape vines, blackberries, currant bushes, raspberries, etc., also the 
peach tree can be wintered until the fruit bearing begins. 



FROSTS AND SPRAYS 
Frost and Temperature Table 



295 



Alabama — Birmingham 

Mobile 

Montgomery 

Arizona — Flagstaff 

Phoenix 

Yuma 

Arkansas — Fort Smith 

Little Rock 

California — Los Angeles 

San Diego 

San Francisco 

Colorado — Denver 

Grand Junction 

Pueblo 

Connecticut — New Haven. . . . 

Delaware — Newark 

Washington, D. C 

Florida — Jacksonville 

Key West 

Tampa 

Georgia — Atlanta 

Columbus 

Toccoa 

Idaho — Boise 

Lewiston 

Pocatello 

Illinois — Cairo 

Chicago 

Springfield 

Indiana — Bloomington 

Indianapolis 

South Bend 

Indian Territory — Muskogee. 
lozva — Des Moines 

Dubuque 

Sioux City 

Kansas — Fort Scott 

Manhattan 

Topeka 

Kentucky — Bowling Green. . . 

Lexington 

Louisville 

Louisiana — New Orleans. . . . 

Shreveport 

Maine — Orono 

Portland 

Maryland — Baltimore 

Princess Anne 

Massachusetts — Boston 

Worcester 

Michigan — Detroit 

Saginaw 

Minnesota — Minneapolis 

Winnebago 

Mississippi — Biloxi 



ANNUAL TEMPERATrRE 


MEAN 


MAX. 


-MIN. 


63 


97 


13 


66 


97 


24 


64 


97 


19 


45 


92 


-18 


70 


112 


25 


72 


113 


29 


60 


96 


3 


61 


96 


7 


63 


97 


32 


62 


94 


35 


56 


101 


38 


50 


97 


-10 


51 


99 


-15 


51 


98 


-13 


48 


94 


-6 


51 


98 


-10 


53 


96 


2 


68 


97 


26 


76 


93 


51 


71 


95 


32 


60 


94 


12 


65 


101 


21 


58 


97 


12 


52 


104 


4 


45 


108 


16 


47 


96 


-12 


57 


95 


1 


47 


94 


-15 


50 


97 


-12 


53 


100 


-11 


51 


94 


-9 


47 


94 


-11 


59 


100 


1 


48 


94 


-18 


46 


94 


-23 


47 


96 


-21 


56 


100 


-11 


53 


102 


-16 


53 


98 


-10 


56 


99 


-3 


54 


94 


-3 


56 


98 


-1 


68 


95 


27 


65 


97 


13 


41 


89 


-27 i 


43 


93 


-10 ! 


54 


97 


2 


53 


93 





48 


93 


-10 


47 


94 


-10 . 


47 


96 


-10 ' 


45 


96 


-20 - 


42 


92 


-iZ 


44 


92 


-30 


68 


98 


24 



KH.LIXG FROST 



Last in Sprii g 



Mar. 4 

Feb. 17 

Mar. 4 

June 15 

Feb. 17 
None 

Mar. 28 

Mar. 28 
None 
None 

Feb. 15 

April 30 

April 13 

May 3 

April 20 

April 23 

April 17 

Feb. 18 
None 

Feb. 18 

Mar. 4 

Feb. 22 

April 5 

May 5 

April 12 

May 8 

April 20 

April 20 

April 20 

April 20 

April 20 

May 15 

May 1 

May 1 

Mav 15 

April 25 

April 15 

April 25 

Mav ] 

April 20 

April 15 

April 15 

Feb. 15 

Mar. 5 

June 1 

Mav 2 

April 15 

May 1 

April 20 

May 1 . 

May 1 

May 10 

May 15 

May 1 

Feb. 15 



Early Fall 



Oct. 25 

Nov. 19 
Nov. 14 
Sept. 15 
Dec. 23 
None 
Nov. 13 
Nov. 13 
None 
None 
None 
Sept. 15 
Oct. 31 



Oct. 
Oct. 
Oct. 
Oct. 
Nov 
None 

Nov. 28 

Oct. 25 

Oct. 25 

Oct. 25 

Oct. 30 

Oct. 30 

Oct. 15 

Oct. 20 

Oct. 25 

Oct. 25 

Oct. 20 

Oct. 20 



Oct. 
Oct. 
Oct. 



1 

15 
15 



Oct. 25 

Sept. 20 

Oct. 15 

Oct. 20 

Oct. 20 

Oct. 20 

Oct. 25 

Oct. 25 

Nov. 15 

Nov. 15 

Sept. 15 

Sept. 25 

Oct. 30 

Oct. 20 

Oct. 25 

Sept. 25 

Oct. 5 

Sept. 20 

Oct. 5 

Sept. 20 

Nov. 15 



296 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Frost and Temperature Table (Continued) 



ANNUAL TEMPERATURE 



Vicksburg 

Missouri — Kansas City 

St. Louis 

Montana — Great Falls 

Kalispell 

Miles City 

Nebraska — Fremont 

Lincoln 

North Platte 

Nevada — Carson City 

Winnemucca 

New Hampshire — Concord... 

Plymouth 

New Jersey — Cape May 

Trenton 

New Mexico — Mesilla Park. . 

Santa Fe 

New York — Albany 

Buffalo 

New York 

North Carolina — Asheville. . . . 

Charlotte 

Raleigh 

North Dakota — Bismarck 

Devils Lake 

Ohio — Cleveland 

Cincinnati 

Oklahoma — Chandler 

Stillwater 

Oregon — Baker City 

Portland 

Pennsyhania — Philadelphia. . . 

Pittsburg 

Rhode Island — Providence. .. . 
South Carolina — Charleston. . . 

Greenville 

South Dakota — Pierre 

Tennessee — Memphis 

Nashville 

Texas — El Paso 

Galveston 

Utah — Logan 

Salt Lake City 

Vermont — Burlington 

Northfield 

Virginia — Charlottesville 

Hampton 

Washington — Tacoma 

Spokane 

West Virginia — Elkins 

Parkersburg 

Wisconsin — Madison 

Milwaukee 

Wyoming — Cheyenne 

Lander 



65 
53 
55 
46 
43 
45 
48 
49 
49 
48 
48 
44 
42 
52 
54 
60 
49 
46 
46 
50 
53 
59 
58 
39 
36 
47 
54 
65 
57 
46 
53 
52 
51 
50 
64 
55 
46 
60 
58 
63 
68 
46 
51 
45 
40 
55 
56 
50 
48 
48 
53 
44 
45 
44 
43 



94 
97 
98 
97 
94 

104 

100 
99 
99 
92 
96 
95 
97 
91 
94 

103 
89 
97 
89 
95 
90 
98 
99 
99 
96 
90 
96 

101 

102 
97 

100 
96 
92 
97 
98 
97 

105 
94 
97 

102 
91 
96 
98 
90 
89 
97 
98 
97 

100 
90 
95 
90 
94 
90 
90 



KILLING FROST 



Last in Spring 



Early Fall 



18 

-10 

-10 

-25 

-10 

-30 

-20 

-14 

-10 

-15 

-20 

-20 

-27 





4 

-A 

-25 

-8 

-5 

4 

14 

14 

-40 

-40 

-8 





3 



24 

-2 

-5 

3 

23 

9 

-20 

6 

1 

14 

24 

-15 

-5 

-18 

-30 

2 

11 

22 

4 

-9 

-2 

-25 

-20 

-20 

-28 



Mar. 4 
Mar. 30 
April 20 
May 25 
May 5 
May 20 
May 1 
April 30 
April 30 
May 20 
May 25 
April 20 
June 5 
April 20 
May 1 
May 3 
April 30 
May 1 
May 1 
April 20 
April 15 
April 5 
April 20 
May 15 
May 15 



May 
May 
May 
May 



May 15 

Mar. 1 

April 20 

April 20 

April 20 

Feb. 15 

April 25 

April 30 

Mar. 1 

April 5 

Mar. 10 

Feb. 1 

May 15 

April 15 

May 1 

June 1 

April 20 

April 20 

Mar. 15 

April 30 

May 10 

April 20 

April 25 

April 20 

June 1 

May 25 



Nov. 15 

Oct. 25 

Oct. 25 

Sept. 15 

Oct. 5 

Sept. 15 

Sept. 15 

Oct. 15 

Sept. 15 

Sept. 15 

Sept. 15 

Sept. 30 

Sept. 10 

Oct. 30 

Sept. 20 

Oct. 20 

Oct. 30 

Sept. 25 

Oct. 10 

Oct. 30 

Oct. 15 

Nov. 10 

Oct. 30 

Sept. 15 

Aug. 15 
Oct. 
Oct. 
Oct. 
Oct. 
Oct. 

Nov. 15 

Oct. 25 

Oct. 10 

Oct. 25 

Nov. 20 

Oct. 25 
Oct. 
Oct. 
Oct. 
Nov. 
Dec. 
Oct. 

Sept. 15 

Sept. 15 

Sept. 10 

Oct. 25 

Oct. 15 

Nov. 15 

Oct. 30 

Oct. 10 

Oct. 15 

Oct. 15 

Oct. 20 

Sept. 15 

Sept. 15 



l<ROSTSANDSPRAYS 297 

Spray Calendar and Formulas. 

Edited by Prof. M. V. SlingcrUiiid, Entomologist, Cornell University College of Agrifultiire 
Copyright l'J05, by The E. C. Brown Co., Spray Manufacturers, Rochester, N. Y. 

Explanation. — In the preparation of this calendar the most impor- 
tant points regarding sprays have been selected and arranged in such 
manner that the grower can see at a glance what to apply and when 
to make the applications. The more important insects and fungous 
enemies are also mentioned, so that a fairly clear understanding of the 
work can be obtained by examining the table. When making the 
applications advised, other enemies than those mentioned are also 
kept under control, for only the most serious ones can be named in so 
brief an outline. The directions have been carefully compiled from 
the latest results of leading investigators. The advice given is in- 
tended to be suggestive merely. In so brief a space it is impossible 
to go into details. The person who wants fuller information, should 
consult the Experiment Station bulletins on the special subjects. 

In this calendar it will be seen that some applications are in 
parentheses ; these are the ones that are least important. The num- 
ber of applications given in each case has particular reference to lo- 
calities in which fungous and insect enemies are most abundant. If 
the crops are not troubled when certain applications are advised, it 
may be unnecessary to make them at these times. When Bordeaux 
mixture is used on fruit trees, it will usually pay to add a poison to 
the spray. 

It should be remembered that in all cases success is dependent on 
the exercise of proper judgment in making applications. 

Prevention in the case of fungous diseases should be the watch- 
word. Plant diseases are rarely cured, but they can frequently be 
prevented. Know the enemy to be destroyed ; know the remedies that 
are most effective, and apply at the proper season. Be prompt, thor- 
ough and persistent. Knowledge and good judgment are more neces- 
sary to success than any definite rules. Spraying is an insurance. 

Spraying is no longer an experiment. It is an accepted practice, 
as tillage, pruning and fertilizing are. It may not be necessary to 
spray every year, but the farmer should be prepared to spray every 
year. In case of doubt, spray. 

See that pumps and rigs are in working order before plowing 
time comes. Order your materials. Pattern after the bugs — be ready. 

Sprays for Vegetables. 

Asparagus. — Rust. Bordeaux mixture as soon as brush appears, 
and repeat every few days. Beetles. Crush eggs on shoots in spring. 
Thoroughly poison the brush or leaves in summer and fall. 

Bean. — Anthracnose, pod-rust. 1, Bordeaux mixture, when first 
true leaf has expanded ; 2, 3, etc., the same at short intervals to keep 
the foliage covered by the mixture. 

Beet. — Leaf-spot. 1, When four or five leaves have expanded, 
Bordeaux mixture ; 2, 3. etc., the same every 10 to 14 days. 

Cabbage and Cauliflower. — Aphis. 1, Upon young plants, kero- 
sene emulsion (1 part to 6 or 8 water) or whale oil soap (1 lb. to 5 



298 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

gals, of water) when insects are first seen; 2, Repeat 1 when neces- 
sary. Cabbage-worm. 1, If plants are not heading, a poison spray; 
2, Repeat 1 at intervals of 7 to 10 days ; 3, If plants are heading, hand- 
picking or hellebore. Root-maggot. Pour around base of plants an 
emulsion of 1 lb. soap, 1 gal. boiling water, 1 pint of crude carbolic 
acid. Dilute this emulsion with 30 parts of water. Club-root. Apply 
lime in soil at rate of 35 bushels per acre, preferably in previous fall. 

Celery. — Early blight, late blight. 1, Apply Bordeaux mixture as 
soon as the plants have become established ; 2, Repeat 1 every two 
weeks until the plants are half or two-thirds grown ; 3, Apply am- 
moniacal copper carbonate solution every 10 to 14 days, or more often 
if the weather is rainy. 

Cucumber, Melon and Squash. — Downy mildew. Bordeaux mix- 
ture every 10 days, or often enough to keep the foliage well covered 
above and below from the time the plants are very small until frost. 
Striped cucumber beetle. Keep plants thoroughly covered with Bor- 
deaux mixture. 

Egg Plant, — Leaf-spot. As soon as plants are established in the 
field, Bordeaux mixture; 2, 3, Repeat 1 at intervals of 2 or 3 weeks 
until first fruits are one-half grown ; 4, Ammoniacal copper carbonate, 
repeat when necessary. 

Onion. — Blight. Weak Bordeaux mixture (two-thirds strength) 
applied every 10 days from time bulbs begin to form until harvest. 
Thrips. Kerosene emulsion or whale oil soap, 1 lb. in 5 gals, water. 
Maggot. See root-maggot under cabbage. 

Potato. — Early blight. 1, When vines are young, Bordeaux mix- 
ture; 2 and 3, Repeat 1 at intervals of 2 to 3 weeks (only partially 
successful). Late blight. 1, During middle of July, Bordeaux mix- 
ture ; 2 and 3, at intervals of 1 to 3 weeks, repeat 1. Scab. Soak uncut 
seed potatoes 1^ hours in solution of 1 oz. corrosive sublimate in 8 
gals, water; or 2 hours in solution of ^ pint formalin in 15 gals, water. 
Potato-beetle. When beetles first appear, a strong poison spray (1 
lb. Paris green in 50 gals, water with 2 lbs. lime, or in Bordeaux mix- 
ture) ; 2 and 3, Repeat 1 when necessary. Flea-beetle. Bordeaux 
mixture and Paris green. 

Tomato. — Leaf-blight. 1, As soon as disease is discovered, Bor- 
deaux mixture or a clear fungicide ; 2, 3, etc., Repeat 1 at intervals of 
7 to 10 days. Rot. Spray as directed under leaf-blight (unsatisfac- 
tory in most cases). Usually better to secure many pickings by start- 
ing the plants early and giving the best culture ; then if the rot comes, 
some pickings stand a chance of escaping. Train the vines. 

Turnip. — Club-root. Apply lime in soil at rate of 35 bushels per 
acre, preferably in previous fall. 

Sprays for Small Fruits. 

Currant. — Leaf-blight. 1, When injury first appears, before the 

fruit is harvested, ammoniacal copper carbonate, to avoid staining the 

fruit ; 2, After fruit is harvested, Bordeaux mixture freely applied ; 3. 

Repeat 2 when necessary. Green currant worm. 1, When first worms 



F R O S T S A X D S P R A Y S 299 

appear on lower leaves, use a poison spray ; 2. Repeat 1 when neces- 
sary until fruit is half grown; 3, Use hellebore if any worms remain 
after fruit is half grown. Borers. Cut out and burn infested stems 
early in spring. 

Gooseberry. — Mildew. 1, Before buds break, Bordeaux mixture; 

2, When first leaves have expanded, potassium sulphide; 3, 4, etc., 
Repeat 2 at intervals of 7 to 10 days, if necessary, throughout the sum- 
mer. Currant-worm. See under currant. 

Grape. — Anthracnose. 1, Before buds break in spring, sulphate 
of copper ; 2, Bordeaux mixture after 3 or 4 days, to cover untreated 
portions. Pick and destroy diseased bunches. Burn diseased wood. 
Black-rot. 1, As soon as first leaves are fully expanded, Bordeaux 
mixture ; 2, After fruit has set, Bordeaux mixture ; 3, Repeat 2 at 
intervals of 2 to 3 weeks until fruit is three-fourths grown ; 4, Am- 
moniacal copper carbonate when fruit is nearly grown. Downy mil- 
dew, powdery mildew, the first application recommended under Black- 
rot is of special importance. Ripe-rot, apply very thoroughly the later 
applications recommended under Black-rot. Steely-beetle. 1, As 
buds are swelling a strong poison spray, as Paris green at rate of 1 lb. 
in 50 gals, water, with 2 lbs. lime; 2, After 10 to 14 days repeat 1 ; 3, 
Apply poison spray (1 lb. Paris green to 100 gals.) on foliage in June, 
to kill the brown grubs. (Very important.) Root-worm. Thorough 
cultivation in June to kill pupae. Strong poison spray (arsenate of 
lead, 4 lbs. in 50 gals, water) ; repeat this application a week or ten 
days later. Leaf-hopper. Whale oil soap, 1 lb. in 10 gals, water, ap- 
plied very thoroughly to undersides of leaves about July 1st. Berry- 
moth. Pick off purple-spotted, green berries in August. Spray with 
poison just before blossoms open and repeat application just after 
blossoms drop. 

Raspberry, Blackberry, Dewberry. — Anthracnose. 1, Before buds 
break, copper sulphate solution ; also cut out badly infested canes ; 2, 
When growth has commenced, Bordeaux mixture; 3, 4, etc.. Repeat 2 
at intervals of 1 to 3 weeks, avoid staining fruit by use of clear fungi- 
cide. (Partially successful.) Badly infested plantations should be 
rooted out. Orange-rust or yellows. Remove and destroy affected 
plants as soon as discovered. Saw-fly. 1, When first leaves have ex- 
panded, arsenites ; 2, After 2 to 3 weeks, repeat 1 or apply hellebore. 
Galls, Snowy Tree, Cricket Egg-scars, Girdlers and Borers. Cut out 
and burn infested canes in spring. 

Strawberry. — Leaf-blight, Mildew. 1, When growth begins in 
spring, Bordeaux mixture ; 2, When first fruits are setting, repeat 1 ; 

3, After fruiting, or on non-bearing plants, Bordeaux mixture at inter- 
vals of 1 to 3 weeks. White-grubs. No application to soil is effective. 
Frequent cultivation kills and discourages many. Digging out grubs 
is only sure method. 

Sprays for Orchard. 

Apple. — Scab. 1, Bordeaux mixture when leaf buds are open, but 
not before flower buds expand ; 2, Repeat 1 as soon as blossoms have 
fallen ; 3, Bordeaux mixture 10 to 14 days after the third ; (4, 5, repeat 



300 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

3 at intervals of about two weeks). Canker. Cut out badly diseased 
parts ; when spraying for scab, spray trunk and branches. Canker- 
worm. When caterpillars first appear (in May), apply a poison spray 
very thoroughly; 2, Repeat 1 after 4 to 10 days; (3, 4, repeat every 10 
days if necessary). Thorough cultivation kills many in soil. Sticky 
bands on trunks will prevent many of the moths from ascending the 
trees in March to lay eggs. Bud-moth. 1, As soon as leaf tips appear 
in buds, a poison spray ; 2, Repeat ^1 before blossom buds open ; (3, 
repeat 2 when blossoms have fallen). Codling-moth. 1, A poison 
spray immediately after blossoms have fallen; 2, Repeat 1, 7 to 10 
days later. Use burlap bands on trunks, killing all insects under them 
every ten days from July 1st to August 15th, and once later before 
winter. The poison may be added to the Bordeaux mixture and the 
two applied together with excellent effect. Case-bearers. As for bud- 
moth. Apple-maggot. Keep windfalls picked up and destroyed or 
fed out. San Jose scale. Summer treatment : Kerosene emulsion 
diluted with 6 to 8 parts water. Late fall and winter treatment: 
Lime and sulphur wash. Whale oil soap, 2 pounds in 1 gallon water. 
Crude petroleum diluted to about 25 to 40 per cent of oil, either with 
an oil-water pump, or better in an emulsion with soap. 

Apricot. — (See Peach.) 

Cherry. — Black-knot. See plum. Rot. 1, When buds break, 
Bordeaux mixture; 2, When fruit has set, repeat 1'; (3, when fruit is 
grown, ammoniacal copper carbonate). Aphis. 1, Kerosene emulsion 
when insects appear; 2, 3, Repeat at intervals of 3 to 4 days if neces- 
sary, Curculio. See under plum. Slug. 1, When insects appear, 
poison spray or hellebore ; 2, 3, Repeat 1 in 10 to 14 days if necessary. 

Peach, Nectarine, Apricot. — Brown-rot. 1, Before buds swell, 
copper sulphate solution ; (2, before flowers open, Bordeaux mixture) ; 
3, When fruit has set, repeat 2 ; 4, Repeat after 10 to 14 days ; 5, When 
fruit is nearly grown, ammoniacal copper carbonate. Pick off and 
destroy diseased fruit in autumn. Curl-leaf. 1, Before buds swell 
(March or April), use strong Bordeaux mixture. San Jose scale, see 
apple. Curculio, see plum. 

Pear. — Blight. 1, Cut out all affected branches in fall before leaves 
drop ; 2, Repeat 1 whenever necessary during growing season. All 
branches should be cut 6 to 10 inches below point of infection ; burn 
the parts. Leaf-blight or fruit-spot. 1, Before blossoms open, Bor- 
deaux mixture ; 2, After blossoms have fallen repeat 1 ; 3, 4, etc., 
Repeat 1 at intervals of 2 to 3 weeks, as appears necessary. Scab. 
See under apple. Leaf-blister mite. 1, Before buds swell in spring, 
kerosene emulsion diluted 3 to 5 times. Psylla. 1, When blossoms 
have fallen in spring, kerosene emulsion diluted 7 to 8 times, or whale 
oil soap, 1 lb. to 4 or 5 gals, of water; 2, 3, etc.. At intervals of 2 to 6 
days, repeat 1 until the insects are destroyed. San Jose scale. Codling- 
moth. See under apple. 

Plum. — Brown-rot. See under peach. Leaf-blight. (1, When first 
leaves have unfolded, Bordeaux mixture) ; 2, When fruit has set, Bor- 
deaux mixture (dilute for Japanese plums) ; 3, 4, etc.. Repeat 2 at in- 
tervals of 2 to 3 weeks, use a clear fungicide after fruit is three-quar- 



FROSTSANDSPRAYS 301 

ters grown. Black-knot. 1, During first warm days of early spring, 
Bordeaux mixture; 2, Repeat 1 where buds are swelling; 3, During 
latter part of May, repeat 1 ; 4, Repeat 1 during middle of June. Cut 
out and burn knots. Curculio. Some are successful with poison 
sprays, applying once before blossoming and twice after blossoms 
fall, at intervals of a week; arsenate of lead poison (2 to 4 lbs. in 50 
gals, water), and arsenate of lime have been most effective. Jar the 
trees after fruit has set, at intervals of 1 to 3 days during 2 to 5 weeks. 
San Jose scale. See under apple. 

Quince, — Leaf-blight or fruit-spot. (1, When blossom buds ap- 
pear, Bordeaux mixture) ; 2, When fruit has set, repeat 1 ; 3, 4, etc.. 
Repeat 1 at intervals of 2 weeks, until fruit is three-quarters grown ; 
if later treatments are necessary, ammoniacal copper carbonate. 
Blight. As for pear. Curculio. Jar, as for plum curculio. Poison 
sprays early in August have given promising results. San Jose scale. 
See under apple. 

Sprays for Forestry. 

Elm. — Leaf-beetle. Arsenate of lead spray as soon as leaves are 
formed ; 2, Repeat 1 a month later ; kill beetles as they descend tree in 
August. 

Maple. — Tent-caterpillars. Collect and burn egg-rings in fall and 
winter; offer prizes to children for this. If practicable, spray with a 
poison soon after first leaves appear. Later cut ofT and burn the tents 
with caterpillars enclosed, or jar and brush ofif the caterpillars as they 
cluster on the bark and branches or trunk during the day. Tussock- 
moth caterpillars. Interest the children to collect the conspicuous 
white egg-masses in fall and winter. Spray trees with poison when 
caterpillars appear, if practicable. Borers. Difficult to reach. Some- 
times can inject carbon bisulphide into burrow and b}^ closing the hole 
tightly, the fumes may reach and kill the borer. 

FORMULAS. 
Fungicides. 

It is safe and often desirable to use the poison insecticides with 
Bordeaux mixture. 

Soda-Bordeaux. 

Soda 2 pounds 

Copper sulphate 6 pounds 

Lime Yz to Y^ pound 

Water 60 gallons 

Commercial soda lye may be used, but the mixture must be tested 
to insure its alkalinity. The amount of lime may in some cases be 
slightly diminished according to strength of the lye. 

Dissolve and dilute the lye to 10 or 15 gals, and pour into the 
copper solution and then add lime as required. Paris green may be 
safely used in connection with this mixture. 

Ammoniacal Copper Carbonate. 

Copper carbonate 5 ounces 

Ammonia (26 degrees Beaume) 3 pints 

Water 45 gallons 



302 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Make a paste of the copper carbonate with a little water. Dilute 
the ammonia with 7 or 8 volumes of water. Add the paste to the 
diluted ammonia and stir until dissolved. Add enough water to make 
45 gallons. Allow it to settle and use only the clear blue liquid. This 
mixture loses strength on standing. 

Copper Sulphate Solution. 

Copper sulphate 1 pound 

Water 15-25 gallons 

Dissolve the copper sulphate in the water. This should never be 
applied to foliage, but must be used before the buds break. For 
peaches and nectarines, use 25 gallons of water. 

Potassium Sulphide Solution. 
Potassium sulphide (liver of sulphur. . . .^-1 ounce 

Water 1 gallon 

This preparation loses its strength upon standing, and should, 
therefore, be made immediately before using. Particularly valuable 
for surface mildews. 

Insecticides. 
Paris Green. 

Paris green 1 pound 

Water 50-150 gallons 

If this mixture is not to be used in Bordeaux mixture, 2 lbs. of 
quick-lime should be added to prevent burning foliage. It is some- 
times used as strong as 1 lb. to 50 gals, on potatoes, but usually at the 
rate of 1 lb. to 100 gals, on most fruit trees, except peach and plum, 
where the weaker mixture of 1 lb. in 150 or even 200 gals, is safer. 
For insects that chew. 

White Arsenic. 

White arsenic being cheaper and of more constant strength than 
Paris green, is becoming increasingly popular as an insecticide. It 
may be safely used with Bordeaux mixture, or separately, if directions 
as to its preparation are carefully followed ; if, however, these are neg- 
lected injury to the foliage will result. The following methods of 
preparation will be found satisfactory. It is unsafe to use white 
arsenic with soda or lime. 

I. Arsenite of Soda for Bordeaux Mixture. — To a solution of 4 
lbs. salsoda crystals in 1 gal. of water, add 1 lb. of white arsenic and 
boil until dissolved. Add water to replace any boiled away, so that 1 
gal of stock solution of arsenite of soda is the result. Use 1 pint of 
this stock solution to 50 gals, of Bordeaux on apple and pear trees, but 
twice as strong on potatoes, and only half as much on peach or plum. 

II. Arsenite of Lime. — (a) If used alone (not in connection 
with Bordeaux), white arsenic should be prepared thus: To a solu- 
tion of 1 lb. of salsoda crystals in a gallon of water add 1 lb. of white 
arsenic and boil until dissolved. Then add 2 lbs. of fresh slaked Ijme 
and boil twenty minutes. Add water to make 2 gals, of stock solution. 
Use 1 quart of this stock solution to 50 gals, of water. 

(b) Boil 1 lb. of white arsenic in 2 gals, of water for an hour or 
more and use the solution while hot to slake 2 lbs. of good, fresh 



FROSTSANDSPRAYS 303 

quick-lime. Add water to make 2 gals, of stock solution and use 1 
quart of this to 50 gals, of water or Bordeaux mixture. 

Other Poisons. 

Green arsenoid and Paragrene are more bulky and finer than 
Paris green, and when of good quality they are just as effective and 
require less agitation. 

Arsenate of lead or "Disparene" can be applied in large quanti- 
ties without injury to the foliage; hence it is very useful against 
beetles and similar insects that are hard to poison. It also adheres to 
the foliage a long time. Use in strengths varying from 1 to 4 lbs. to 
50 gals, of water. Ready for use as soon as paste is stirred in the 
water. 



CHAPTER XXI 

Xne Woman on tne Farm 

The Mission of the Farmer's Wife. 

AS this book goes to press, the Second International Congress of 
Farm Women is in session at Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. 
The first of these congresses, held October 17-20, 1911, at Colo- 
rado Springs, Colo., was the outgrowth of the zeal and far- 
sightedness of a few women who met in the summer of 1911 and 
planned this first meeting of a movement to better the social and 
economic state of farmers' wives and farm women all over the world. 
The organization, which was the result of that meeting, adopted a 
constitution which declared that the Congress should be an auxiliary 
of the International Dry-Farming Congress. Its aims should be, quot- 
ing from the constitution : 

"To enforce the conditions, financial, physical, social and spiritual, 
of agricultural homes ; to understand more completely the significance 
of the farm to the life of the nation and the dignity of the position of 
the farm woman as co-worker in the most potential and far-reaching 
of the national industries ; to increase conservation of energy through 
social intercourse, and by observation of processes ; to develop the 
home to a greater understanding of modern appliances and education 
in scientific management of work ; to further develop the home 
through conference with authoritative experts on dairy methods, poul- 
try culture, kitchen gardening, improved methods of equipping- the 
home, problems of nutrition, children's welfare, industrial education, 
including home economics, the increase and proper use of leisure and 
the stimulation of social intercourse in rural communities, and to 
stand for a more generous state and national support and encour- 
agement of institute and extension work among farm women." 

In the year that has passed since that Congress, and the organiza- 
tion of farm women that resulted from it, the auxiliar}' has been devel- 
oping strength of numbers and much effective gain in the increase of 
such rural bodies as women's granges and branches of farmers' insti- 
tutes. These farm societies have helped farm women to use their 
working hours to better advantage from the point of strength and 
health, to get better results from their increasing labors, to lessen 
their hours of work, and yet to improve their home and educate their 
children with greater efficiency. Farm life has been made less of a 
drudgery. Farm homes are more cheerful. 

Will Educate the Children. 
The Congress has not only helped to bring about these improved 
conditions of home labor to some extent, but it has inspired a spirit for 
better social and educational opportunities for the farm children. It 




Mrs. John A. Widtsoe 
Logan, Utah 

Wife of Pres. Widtsoe of Utah Agricultural College, 
Third Vice-President of The Second Inter- 
national Congress of Farm Women. 



T 11 K W O .\T AN ON THE FAR M 305 

will do more than that in time. It will ^ive those children a vision of 
prog-ress that will end in a goal. Not alone of more farm profits, but 
in a better world for the landless and the homeless of our cities. The 
farmer's child has his place in the struggle for a living made for him 
from the start. He is listed among the producers of the world. Edu- 
cate him so thoroughly, say the women of this Congress, that he will 
not further widen the line between him and the unproductive tramp 
of the harvest field — will not think that his knowledge of liim ends by 
"giving him a cold potato and letting him go." 

Mrs, Burns' Outline. 

Mrs. Eleanor L. Burns, the secretary of the new movement, out- 
lined still more clearly and fully the objects of the Congress in a recent 
contribution to the Lethbridge Herald. She said there: 

"Our aim is to understand more completely the significance of the 
farm to the life of the nations and the dignity of the position of the 
farm woman as co-worker in the most potential and far-reaching of 
the national industries ; to increase conservation of energy through 
intercourse and observation of processes ; understanding of the mod- 
ern appliances and education in scientific management of work ; to 
further develop the home through conference with authoritative ex- 
perts on dairy methods, poultry culture, kitchen gardening, improved 
methods of equipping the home, problems of nutrition, children's wel- 
fare, industrial education, including home economics, the increase and 
proper use of leisure and the stimulation of social intercourse in rural 
communities. This organization stands also for a more generous state 
and national support and encouragement of institute and extension 
work among farm women." 

A Practical Farmer's Wife. 

It is true that the agricultural schools and colleges of the country 
are every year increasing the scientific knowledge of farm life as a 
vocation for young women. But scientific knowledge is not always 
practical knowledge. Home making is also the special function of 
women, but a woman cannot make a home alone. The farmer must 
see to it first that however the farm returns are spent a certain por- 
tion of them goes to making the farm home more comfortable, conve- 
nient and labor-saving for the wife and children. He may not always 
have much cash for this purpose, especially if he is a young man just 
married, but the two things that every true man has — a strong arm 
and a kindly heart — can be put to their best service only by a consid- 
eration, first for the family side of farm living; and second, an eye to 
the beauty of farm surroundings. An attractive home is no more 
expensive than an unattractive one. A labor-saving house is less 
costly than an inconvenient and illy-planned house ; for time, on the 
farm, is truly money. 

The first mission of the young farmer's wife, therefore, is to take 
the lead in all movements to make real farming attractive. By real 
farming, I mean such farming as the average farmer must cope with — 
the farming where income and outgo must be carefully watched, 



306 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

where the land is about the only capital, and where some debt usually 
rests on the property. On such a farm every new piece of machinery 
must pay for itself, and the kind of close management demanded has 
very little relation to the agriculture carried on by wealthy land own- 
ers with whom farming is only one of a dozen different interests. It 
is upon the countless little farms of forty, sixty or perhaps a hundred 
and twenty acres that are beginning to show themselves all over the 
country that this new farming movement for women will grow to the 
best results. 

Danish Law As to Loans. 

It would be a far-sighted plan for every state if the Danish law as 
to loans for small farmers were adopted, with some modifications. 
The law there says that every man, or unmarried woman, whose chief 
occupation is farm work, and who otherwise is able to comply with 
the requirements of the law, may obtain a loan from the state to the 
extent of nine-tenths of the (loan) value of the property, which must 
not exceed $2,144 (horses, cattle and implements included). 

Interest is paid at the rate of 3 per cent annually, but no repay- 
ment of the principal during the first five years, after which period 4 
per cent per annum constitutes interest and extinction of the debt. 

Observe Economy. 

The expectant farmer's wife, therefore, should plan her home with 
a view to economy, first. Let it be true economy, however. As 
between a large kitchen, with poor lighting and ventilation, and a 
small one, with plenty of windows to the east or southeast,^ and a per- 
fect ventilating system, choose the small kitchen, with a distance 
between the kitchen table and the cooking range of not more than six 
feet. Put the sink and its attachments as near the table as possible, 
and near, or under a window. In fact, if the whole eastern side of the 
kitchen can be given up to windows, sufficiently high from the floor 
to permit of the kitchen conveniences being arranged under the win- 
dows, it will be a most desirable plan. 

In fitting screens on these windows, have them full length, thus 
insuring the lowering of the window at the top in the summer time. 
A ceiling ten feet high in a kitchen is not too high. As to floors, opin- 
ion is about equally divided between the hardwood floor, finished in 
oil or painted, and a floor covering of linoleum. The linoleum is a 
saver of labor, there is no doubt, but must be renewed oftener. 

In figuring any expenses and income on the farm the women of 
the farm must see to it that their own labor is counted at its full worth. 
In fact, in all farm transactions of which a capable woman has charge, 
she must reckon in as outgo not only her labor, but the interest on the 
investment, the repairs of equipment, cost of food production, dete- 
rioration of whatever live stock she may be managing, and then add a 
department for "sundries," that mysterious agency that flies away 
with so much of our estimated profits in any work. 

Have a Soil Survey. 

A woman can also, before going upon a farm, learn by a soil sur- 
vey of such portions of the land as she plans to use for vegetable and 




Mrs. Amy B. Cooper 
Treesbank, Manitoba 

Member and Speaker International Congress 
of Farm Women. 



THE WOMAN ON THE FARM 307 

fruit gardens what is the fertility basis upon whicli she is to begin her 
labors. If that special spot is poor in soil value, but has good drain- 
age and a pleasing outlook, keep it for the surrounding value it gives 
to the home site. The fertility of almost any soil can be rapidly built 
up by proper agriculture. But you can't change the configuration of 
land or the process of the sun by any sort of soil maneuvering. A 
sunny slope, a few trees, a beautiful view, are worth more at first to 
the future home builders of the farm life than the precise balancing of 
nitrogen phosphorous and potash in the garden soil. To decide such 
points is essentially the woman's part in the new life, whether she be 
a pioneer in an isolated homestead, or a suburban small-truck worker. 

Sanitary Surroundings. 

Another feature of farm life in which the farmer's wife has every 
right to concern herself is as to the location and arrangement of the 
outbuildings with relation to the house and its surroundings. As a 
general thing the farmer will wish to put all of the barn surroundings 
too near the dwelling for beauty or sanitation. It would be only nat- 
ural for him to want to save time and steps for himself and his farm 
help. But on this point the woman of the farm must take a decided 
stand. And if she uses her influence wisely and with tact the most 
"sot in his ways" man will be reasonable enough at last to yield the 
point of his own small economies to the larger ones of the comfort, 
pleasure and health of his family. The farm buildings should not be 
nearer to the house than the length of a city block, or about 500 feet. 
This distance prevents the bringing of much objectionable farm litter 
into the house, and does away with nearly every chance of those 
unpleasant odors which even the best kept barnyards sometimes send 
out. Such a distance also permits of landscape work around the house 
as time goes on, and enables the wife to plan screens of vegetation 
growing about flower beds that will shut out unsightly spots. 

Labor-Saving Methods. 

A woman, also, well trained as to the sanitation of farm life, 
would also see to it that the water supply, if it must be from a well, 
was drawn from one with proper surface and subsoil drainage and 
properly protected surroundings as to germ contagion. The very 
isolation of so many of our farms would give her a deeper sense of her 
responsibility for the health of the family. She would be the only 
health officer of her own district, and should be all the more self- 
reproachful if an infectious disease broke out in it. And as soon as 
the farm finances would permit, she would see to it that some form of 
water supply other than the well was installed in her home. 

On this point, I shall include here an account of the farm of a 
dairyman at Poynette, Wisconsin, which possesses one of the smallest 
farm plants for electricity in the country. "The Electric News Serv- 
ice" is responsible for the following account of this: 

"This tiny plant supplies current for twenty-four lamps and is 
operated entirely by the farm windmill at a total of a few cents a 
year for lubricating oil. 



308 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

''The farm consists of about a hundred acres and is devoted to 
stock raising and dairying. The power windmill is twelve feet in 
diameter with a vertical shaft extending down the tower; attached to 
it are the power pulleys, etc. In addition to driving the electric light 
dynamo this mill is used to operate a drill press, grindstone, corn 
sheller, small saw, washing machine, grain elevator and feed grinder. 

"The dynamo is located in a small building at the base of the 
windmill tower. This dynamo has a capacity of six amperes at thirty- 
five volts, or 0.21 kilowatts when driven at full speed of 450 revolu- 
tions a minute. 

"The variations in speed, due to irregularities in the wind, are 
overcome by a small automatic switch placed in the circuit between 
the generator and the storage batteries, which prevents any accidents 
to the apparatus by 'breaking' the circuit when a certain range of 
speed has been passed. 

"This tiny plant illuminates the home, the yards and the barn 
buildings. All the lamps receive their current from the storage bat- 
tery, the charging of which is the dynamo's only function." 

As will be seen, the plant is only used for lighting at present; but 
an extension of the same power could easily be made to cover heating 
and a water supply by using a gasoline engine for an emergency addi- 
tional service. With regard to the latter, one farm authority claimed 
recently that, with a gasoline engine, "the farm home can be fitted 
with hot water heat, hot and cold water, bath and toilet room, electric 
lights, wash room in the cellar, etc., for $1,000. The interest on $1,000 
is $60 a year. Ten per cent for depreciation and repairs is $100 a year. 
The saving in coal will pay for the cost of running the lighting and 
water systems. For $160 a year the farm home can be provided with 
every modern convenience that the city home possesses. 

"By using a furnace and an acetylene system the annual cost can 
be lowered to about $85. The city man pays that extra $7 to $14 a 
month and more in increased rent and thinks nothing of it." 

Now I shall add to this estimate a list of labor-saving devices in 
the farm home which was given by Mrs. John A. Widtsoe, of Logan, 
Utah, at her very practical address last year before the Congress of 
Farm Women. Her list does not include any fixtures or machinery 
run by electric power. Therefore the question of running expenses 
does not come in, as a public utility, as in the case of villages. As 
will be seen, Mrs. Widtsoe's list is very comprehensive as a time- 
saver : 

Heating system $400.00 

Complete water system, including bath tub, sink and pressure 

tank : 125.00 

Sewing machine, say 50.00 

Refrigerator 50.00 

Cement walks, average sized cottage 25.00 

Dishwasher 25.00 

Fireless cooker 1 5.00 

Washing machine 10.00 

Coal oil stove 10.00 




Mrs. Chas. A. Lory 
Fort Collins, Colo. 

Member of the Executive Committee of the Second 
International Congress of Farm Women. 



THE WOMAN ON THE FARM 309 

Steam cooker 8.00 

Vacuum cleaner, hand 8.00 

Cold mangle 6.00 

Alcohol iron 5.00 

Bread mixer 3.00 

Cake mixer 1-00 

Total $741.00 

As Mrs. Widtsoe says, if farm women would use their wits to 
invent other labor-saving helps, or their influence for legislation to 
promote research into farm home economics and energy savers for the 
farmer's family, it would be as valuable at least as appropriations for 
experiments in better breeds of chickens and hogs. 

Recreation. 

Another duty of the lady of the farm house comes in the neces- 
sity for insisting upon recreation. On this point I shall quote from 
some advice given by a farmer to other farmers in an Eastern agri- 
cultural paper. The writer says: 

"Most farmers think it impossible for them to leave the farm for 
even a day or two during the summer. They have the impression that 
the farm can't get along without them or that they do not need recre- 
ation. It is quite important that both the mind and body have a rest 
occasionally. Even though every day is a seemingly busy one for the 
farmer there is no excuse for his sticking about the old place con- 
tinually grinding away his life. Take a few days off now and then. 
Go fishing, go visiting, go sightseeing, go somewhere to get away 
from the same old scenes. You will live longer, be happier and die 
just as rich as though you never spent any time in recreation. Don't 
forget there are other members in your family who need an outing 
occasionally as well as yourself, and take them along with you." 

Don't forget this, farmers' wives ! Have it printed in large type, 
and hang it up in the kitchen. Your "man" will take the hint by slow 
degrees. If he doesn't, try stronger arguments. You know how to 
use them, when necessary. Otherwise what w^ere tongues given to 
women for? 

The Most Valuable Crop. 

And now, as a last suggestion to the farm woman, let me mention 
that the thinking crops on the farm are very little cultivated by the 
women of the farm. As a rule, she leaves too much of the agricultural 
planning, the question of permanent improvements and of systematic 
increase of farm values to her husband. Granted that the home has 
been planned and built, the grounds laid out and the farm buildings 
located as she has suggested and under her careful eye ; granted, too, 
that she has taken for her own labor and rewards certain departments 
of farm life, and carries them on with efficient energy, does her share 
in the work stop there? Not at all. She must continue to think for 
the whole body of the farm life — not for one member of it. 

In any other vocation of life than farming, there are many reasons 
why women cannot, and perhaps ought not, to expect to help actively 



310 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

in the management of their husband's affairs. Professional men are 
entrusted with too many secrets. Merchants have hosts of important 
side issues of which the strings can be handled only from the office 
desk. Manufacturers are constantly tossed up and down on the waves 
of good or bad times, and are often the victims instead of the sharers 
in prosperity unless they know how to keep their own counsel and 
paddle their own canoes. In all these aft"airs the working forces are 
more or less hidden from the view of women and it could not well be 
otherwise. 

With the occupancy and cultivation of land, though, the woman 
sees everything spread out before her feet and at her fingers' ends. 
She knows good and bad harvests, as well as she knows good and 
bad farming. Her comparisons for use often lie in the next farmstead. 
She may not draw too obvious a moral from those comparisons, for 
that would not be good policy. But if she has any mind at all of her 
own, that mind is sitting in silent judgment on the methods of the 
farmer. Why not put it to some better use than mere reflection or 
dissatisfied comparison? 

Would it do any harm for the wife to suggest to the farmer that 
his farm might show better profits if he ran his poultry, hog, fruit, 
or stock crops as separate departments, to be managed by different 
members of his family? Two heads are better than one. Why not a 
half dozen independent departments on a farm, each responsible to 
the farm owner only for a certain profit? Beyond that line, let the 
gains belong to the independent worker, and let them be allowed to 
push their own work to any pitch of business success by fair methods. 

Why not keep a diary of farm happenings, farmer's wife? You 
will find it of the greatest help later on. Keep also a book in which 
all clippings of value as to the farm are transferred. It isn't neces- 
sary to speak about the possession of this book. But once in a while 
make a timely suggestion as to things which can be done next winter, 
when the work is slack around the farm. Keep your eye out for nec- 
essary repairs on outbuildings. Get together in your own home, in 
the long winter evenings, little groups of the neighbors. If you don't 
begin with more than two or three, but judiciously select those few, 
you will be surprised at the new jolt given to the farming ideas of 
the man of the house. And probably your little social venture may 
grow into a general agricultural society for your whole section as 
soon as the other farmer's wives have caught on to the idea. 

What social movement of our day could keep pace with the ben- 
efit to the whole world of a rural awakening on the subject of soil 
betterment and social uplift for the farm? Not in the city, but in the 
country — the large, quiet places of the earth — is the battle ground 
where the salvation of the laborer is to be worked out. What a part 
for a woman to play ! Have our farmers' wives and daughters the 
skill, the self-sacrifice, the energy, and the indomitable persistence to 
play it to the well wrought end? The coming generation can best tell 
how the thought crop will yield on the farms of the next thirty years. 
It must yield abundantly if we are to remain the United States. 

Women farmers, be proud of your profession, and show your re- 




Mrs. Eleanor L. Burns 



Secretary of The Second International Congress 
of Farm \^'ome^ 



THE WOMAN ON THE FARM 311 

spect for it by demanding in a womanly manner the consideration 
such a feminine power in the world deserves. Don't be too long-suf- 
fering nor patient. Don't be too exacting. Only ask for what you 
ought to have as the conserver and developer of the most potent fac- 
tor in civilization, the farm home. You will get it if you only work 
long enough and hard enough. 



CHAPTER XXI 

Early Day Farming m the East 

AFTER the close of the Revolutionary War and the War of 
1812, a great number of young persons emigrated from Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut, to Western New York, and to 
Pennsylvania. They found that the land in these then west- 
ern states was thickly covered with forests. So the first work they 
did -was to build log huts on their claims. They called a "bee" to do 
this work, helping each other in that way, until each family had a 
home. Most of these emigrants brought with them a yoke of oxen. 
The father of the writer brought with him a good ox team, a wagon 
and all kinds of farming implements that were made in those early 
days. 

The houses were quickly built ; then the next work was to clear 
the land, removing from it the mighty forests. Ninety-nine per cent 
of the people spent most of their best days in clearing from the land 
tall white pine trees and white oaks. Hundreds of these tall pines 
and large oaks stood on an acre of ground and were often found to 
be from 3 to 4 feet, and some of them even 6 feet in diameter. 

In those early days some of those tall white pine trees were sold 
from 25 cents to $1.00 per tree to shingle makers. Thousands of 
these great, gigantic trees were cut down and hauled from one log 
heap to another with the poor ox team until the logs, and oxen also, 
were nearly worn out. Weeks and months were spent in clearing 
these lands before any crops could be raised on them. When the 
irksome task was completed, they found the soil very rich, and on it 
they could easily raise all kinds of grains and garden vegetables. 

The writer was personally acquainted with some of those early 
settlers that still reserve these forests. The late Jacob Roads of 
Tompkins Co., New York, could point out at the time of the Civil 
War tall, white pine trees in his forests that he was ofifered $100 per 
tree for, just as they stood. This great forest of white pine and oak 
trees was situated five miles east of Ithaca, N. Y. The late Hon. 
Elijah Brown and the late William Green of Cayuga Co., New York, 
owned a very large area of natural forestry containing the white pines 
and oaks and also a large number of hard maple trees. 

Farming Methods. 

Nature had supplied these new lands with a large quantity of 
soil fertilizer. Commercial fertilizer was unknown to the early set- 
tlers, but the first years these lands produced large crops without 
them. The surface soil was a deep, rich, dark and sandy loam with a 
small percent of gravel mixture. The depth of this surface soil was 
from two to three feet, and the hardpan sub-soil was a deep yellow 
clay substance from four to six feet in depth and so compact and con- 



EARLY DAY FARMING IN THE EAST 313 

centrated that water could hardly penetrate it. This being so con- 
centrated, it became a great reservoir for supplying moisture to the 
surface soil and made it proof against drouth. 

Crop rotation was practiced in those early days. The lands that 
were sown in the autumn with winter wheat, were sown again about 
the first of March or in early spring with clover, mixed with grass 
seeds. This mixture was from eight to twelve quarts per acre. The 
red clover when green, and in full bloom, was plowed under and 
refertilized, the soil supplying to it the needed elements, such as 
humus, phosphorous, etc. This clover, a mammoth red English, was 
ver}' w^ell known and highly valued for its large yield of crop, and 
was even then the best known fertilizer for exhausted lands. In those 
days the crop rotation was sod ground for corn and potatoes the first 
year, the second year barley and oats were sown, next the winter 
wheat. In the early spring, it was sown to clover and sometimes the 
clover was cut for hay or, when necessary, plowed under to fertilize 
the soil. 

Habits and Diet. 

The farmers of the early days were very early risers. They 
were up about 4 o'clock in the morning, the year around. They be- 
lieved in that old adage, "Early to bed; early to rise makes a man 
healthy, wealthy and wise." Most of them attained a very old age. 
Their average age was from 75 to 100 years. Their good health prob- 
ably resulted from their simple eating and drinking and living. The 
drinking water was excellent ; usually pure cold water from a deep 
flowing spring which was never known to freeze, even in zero weather. 
The food was plain, consisting of salt pork, corned beef and all kinds 
of vegetables raised on the farm. The usual dessert was a pudding 
made from cornmeal, flavored with a tart dried fruit, such as dried 
apples, raspberries or cherries. The boiled dinner was a great favor- 
ite, made with meats and all kinds of vegetables boiled together in 
large quantities, as it was often served for supper with warm corn 
bread, cold rye, or Indian bread. Later in the evening a dish of 
nice apples with a variety of nuts, such as chestnuts, butter nuts, 
walnuts and hickory nuts, and a glass of good sweet apple cider, were 
served. 

The morning breakfast consisted of home cured smoked ham 
and fried eggs, with buckwheat cakes, fresh dairy butter, and the 
pure maple syrup made from the trees of these forests. Their drink 
at meal time consisted of milk, barley or crust cofTee, or pure apple 
cider. Often honey was served for supper with warm cream bis- 
cuits. 

The settlers found apple trees in their forests bearing apples. 
They grew from the sprouts of trees that the Indians planted in a 
very early day. When General Sullivan fought the Indians, he had 
their apple trees cut down and destroyed everything in his march 
that would provide the Indians with food. Fruit trees were chopped 
down, and food plants pulled up and thrown into deep waters. He 
was afraid the Indians would take his several thousand cavalry horses 



314 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

so he ordered them shot at Horse Head Bay, a place near Elmira, 
N. Y. 

Salt springs were not discovered by the early settlers, but the 
salt was brought to them by the native Indians (or red men, as they 
were sometimes called). They brought it in their kettles, and some- 
times the salt would be very warm, so the settlers therefore thought 
the salt springs were quite near to them. But the red man was too 
wise and cunning to tell them. They hunted far and near, but the 
Indians had so concealed them that their search was all in vain. Con- 
sequently the natives owned the springs, and they furnished salt to 
the early settlers of my neighborhood at Ithaca as well as through- 
out the entire country. 

Gristmills in a new country were not very numerous and often 
located from 20 to 30 miles apart. The early settlers met with many 
difhculties in getting their grist to the mills, but they had to have 
bread, the "stalT of life." They traveled over rough roads with a sack 
of corn or wheat on horseback, sometimes crossing streams with 
rafts or wading through when the water was shallow, carrying the 
sack of grain on their backs, and returning in the same way with the 
flour for bread. 

The early settlers dressed their own meats. To dress the fat hogs 
they cut down a large tree, and took a log out of it. They dug this 
log out with an ax, shaping it into a trough which they filled with 
water and heated by heating stones redhot and dropping them in the 
water in the trough. If they did not succeed in getting it hot enough 
the first time they would repeat the process, and this would usually 
bring the water to a boiling point. The hog was then scalded and 
dressed very quickly. It was somewhat of a novel way, but proved 
to be a great success. 

Some of the Successful Farmers. 

Some of the most successful farmers of the early days in New 
York were the late Hon. Elias W. Cady of the town of Dryden, 
Tompkins county, and the late Hon. Benjamin E. Wood of the same 
town and county. These two men owned large farms that were 
among the very best in the state. Mr. Cady's farm contained 900 
acres of land, 200 acres of this being timber land. They raised mixed 
crops in rotation on the cleared land, grass and clover mixed for hay 
land and pasture lands. At the time of the Civil War Mr. Cady had 
on his farm from 300 to 500 of the very best high bred sheep, from 
20 to 30 head of high bred short horn cattle, 15 to 20 head of horses, 
and 20 to 25 hogs. He raised yearly 20,000 bushels of grain. Wheat, 
oats, barley, corn, buckwheat ; a lot of potatoes and a large amount 
of mangel-wurzels. These last he fed to his stock. He also cut from 
100 to 150 tons of hay yearly. 

Mr. Cady was one of the first to raise large crops of clover for 
pasture and hay. He considered the clover the farmers' bank as a 
soil fertilizer, apart from its excellent feeding qualities for all kinds of 
farm stock. The barnyard manure also was looked after very closely 
and used for fertilizing. Mr. Cady built a number of large barns, 



EARLY DAY FARMING IN THE EAST 315 

with full basements underneath, always locating on a dry mound or 
knoll. They were 10 feet deep and were built of stone wall on three 
sides, the south side being built of wood. This contained a large 
number of glass windows, so as to let in plenty of sunshine, and doors 
for the stock to pass through into the stables. All the stock was 
always housed in warm barns. He also built a number of hay and 
sheep barns combined. All crops as soon as they were harvested, 
were put under cover, and also all the farming tools and machinery. 
When coming to that country he brought with him a thoroughbred 
valuable mare for breeding, with pedigree back to that imported sire 
called Messenger, who was brought from England in 1788. Mr. 
Cady was a great lover of horses, and could say, as did the late Dr. 
De Witt Talmadge of Brooklyn, N. Y., "I believe there ought to be 
a heaven for this noble animal, the horse." He always purchased 
pure bred sires for breeding and he believed in improving all kinds of 
farm stock. 

In the early days, before the time of railroads, they hauled their 
wheat by team to Albany and brought back a load of groceries or 
merchandise. It took from 12 to 14 days to make this trip, a dis- 
tance of 190 miles. At one time before making one of these trips, 
Mr. Cady found that his wagonbox had to be repaired. He went to a 
little country store at a small village, told the keeper he had to go to 
Albany, and would like a few nails to fix his wagonbox, and prom- 
ised to pay him when he returned ; to all of which the keeper replied, 
"Many persons have asked to be trusted, and have never paid." Mr. 
Cady left the store. He went back home, got his gimlet from his 
tool box, bored holes and made wooden pins to repair the wagonbox. 
He put on a load of wheat and started again for Albany. He met 
with some difficulties, the country being rough, with many hills, and 
valleys to encounter, especially one very steep hill, with a stream of 
water below in the gulley. This hill was 30 rods long, and rose grad- 
ually to 150 feet in height, so it was very steep. He partly unloaded 
the bags at the foot of the hill, drove to the top of the hill, tied his 
horses to a tree and hauled the bags up the hill himself, then loaded 
and journeyed on his way. 

Mr. Cady always hired his help by the year, keeping two women 
for the housework, and always two men the year round besides sev- 
eral day men during the busy seasons. He was kind to his hired help, 
and they stayed a number of years at a time in his service. 

His Farm Machinery. 

The early settlers did not possess much machinery. Mr. Cady 
borrowed what he called a stump machine to dig the stumps from 
the land. It cost him from $25.00 to $50.00 per acre to do this clear- 
ing. The stumps were often used to build fences with. 

His first mowing machine was a one drive wheel machine. It 
required a strong team of horses to draw it, the grass being thick 
and heavy. The knives had to be kept very sharp, and the horses 
walked very fast to keep up the motion. Therefore they had to rest 
quite often. The old farmers called this machine "the horse killer." 



316 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

His next machine was a mower and reaper combined, and about two 
or three years previous to his death he purchased a self binder. It 
was about this time that Mr. Cady narrated to the writer this early 
history and his experiences in New York state. He said he was a 
poor boy and had to earn his own money by hard work. He traveled 
by team and found the roads almost impassable. They were cut 
through thick forests, there were no bridges, so streams had to be 
forded. Occasionally you would run across a squatter's log hut 
that had always a cross dog, or two of them, who would run after the 
passers-by like savage lions, which was not a very pleasant experi- 
ence to say the least. 

The hotels, or stopping places, along the road to the market cities 
of those days were named "road houses," "half way houses," "center 
houses," or also called by the name of the first settlers. The fat cat- 
tle and sheep were bought by drovers, and driven over land several 
hundred miles to Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Often when 
feed was scarce, they utilized all the straw. Frequently new hay 
was not to be bought for love or money. Sometimes they even had to 
empty the straw from the bed-ticking to feed the "bossy cow." After- 
wards the straw was used for bedding at the barns. 

The Thanksgiving turkey was a great favorite among the early 
settlers, and its flesh was highly valued for food. This great bird of 
the pioneers was a native of America and was hunted in early days 
by the Indians. These birds were sold to drovers, who clipped one 
wing so they could not fly and then drove them in the fall hundreds 
of miles to Boston, New York and Philadelphia in readiness for the 
Thanksgiving and Christmas festivities. 

Most of the early settlers lived and died on their first purchased 
homes or farms. They erected beautiful frame houses, with large fire- 
places and big open chimneys. These houses had the best of ventila- 
tion systems. They loved their homes very dearly, and were fond of 
sitting before the fireplaces winter evenings with their loved ones 
gathered about them, softly singing "Home, Home, Sweet, Sweet, 
Home, There Is No Place Like Home." 

Mr. Cady accumulated a large fortune. He made large dona- 
tions to help build the first railroad that came through his home town, 
Dryden. He also purchased a farm for each of his sons and started 
them out in life. 

Mr. Cady lived a noble life, was very generous, always helping 
the poor and needy and helpless about him. Thus an honorable 
and useful earthly career was ended at a ripe old age of 97 years. 

Squatters. 

In early days, squatters of New York lands would settle on non- 
residence lands, and were held for taxes. The laws were very strict. 
A tax-collector, when put into office, was sworn under oath not to 
return the land to the controller of these non-residence lands at Al- 
bany until all the personal property of these squatters had been at- 
tached and sold at auction-sale. Sometimes the only cow they had 
was sold, even the cooking utensils, and in some cases everything in 



EARLY DAY FARMING IN THE EAST 317 

doors, and out of doors as well, had to go, oftentimes just for a few 
cents or shillings. 

Sometimes they did not get enough from this sale to pay the 
taxes. In that case the land was returned to the controller at Albany 
and the money collected received. Occasionally the tax-collector 
would, at his own expense, return the articles sold to the poor squat- 
ter, and he would remain on the land just the same. Yet the squatters 
feared the tax-collector even more than the wild beast of the forests. 
They knew that the beast would only take his fill, while the tax-col- 
lector would take all and then was not satisfied. 

Making Maple Syrup and Sugar. 

This the settlers did in early spring by tapping the maple trees. 
To catch the sap they made troughs by cutting down some of the best 
basswood trees and removed the bark. A tree two or three feet in 
diameter was cut into logs about three feet long, and these logs were 
split in halves and made into sap troughs by being dug out and then 
charred or burned. This was done very carefully, so as not to injure 
the troughs, after which they were scraped, carefully washed, and 
placed under the tapped trees to catch the sap. The sap that flowed 
was put in a boiling kettle (when not in use for boiling the dinner) 
and boiled down into syrup or sugar. Being the pure stufif it had a 
fine flavor. 

Before the day of apple cider vinegar, sap of the soft maple and of 
the birch tree was boiled down and converted into vinegar, the early 
settlers thus making their own vinegar*. In the fall of the year, when 
the grain was hauled a long distance to the cash markets, they pur- 
chased in bulk their yearly supplies of groceries, etc., for family use. 
In those early days, where it could be done, dams were built across 
large streams of water to form a waterpower and grist mills were 
erected, but were very far apart. Sometimes flour was scarce, and 
corn was used for food prepared in dififerent ways. 

Laying in Stores for the Future. 

The old saying is "save for a rainy day" ; it may also be well to 
lay up something for a dry day. The farmer is never sure of a crop. 
Often it is taken by hot winds, hail, or drouth, and failure comes in 
many other ways. The writer has known a number of farmers who 
laid aside large quantities of produce when it was plentiful, built large 
barns and storehouses and stored thousands of bushels of grain for a 
period of years. I knew three brothers who stored in large barns 
thousands of tons of the sweet, odorous hay for 30 years and more. 
Also large stacks were built and were covered over with good boards, 
board roofs and trimmed at the bottom in barrel-shape so that mice 
could not destroy the hay. And in time, as in Egypt of old. a great 
scarcity came from drouth. Crops failed and these men sold the wheat 
for $4.00 per bushel and the hay for $30.00 per ton, and the famine 
was so great that people were glad to get it at any price, coming 
for it for many miles as did the people in olden times when a great 
famine swept over the land of Egypt. 



318 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

People are being warned in this twentieth century of crises in the 
near future in the United States. The Rev. Ira R. Hicks says, "The 
next Jupiter period will be centrallated in 1912, hence we are to expect 
all the peculiarities of a Jupiter disturbance during 1911, 1912 and 
1913." He says that "during this period a maximum of general rain- 
fall will be reached and at least one season of the three will bring a 
crisis of drouth to all the extremes of our own and other continents. 
It is believed that the crisis will come over the great grain-produc- 
ing sections of this country during the summer and autumn of 1912 
and 1913. The warning is that during one season of the three years 
we may look for a widespread drouth." 

This is not a dream as was King Pharoah's dream. Yet Dr. 
Hicks seldom fails in his prophecies. Therefore farmers, agricultur- 
ists and commercialists in general should take warning, as did the 
people of old at the time of the great famine in Egypt. Plant such 
crops, and make such plans as will be to your interests, laying aside 
as much as can be done for the future drouth. Do these things in a 
wise, timely, resolute way, and you will find to your infinite surprise 
and delight that the severest drouth may be passed without such a 
great loss as losing homes and starving for want of food. Let us be 
wise and take the warning. Lay up stores and be prepared for the 
crisis, if it should come to this noble country of ours. 

Wild Fruit and Game. 

When the red man was king of the forests of Southern and West- 
ern New York he camped near the large lakes such as Genesee, Cay- 
uga and several others. Some of these lakes were from 300 to 500 feet 
deep, and about 40 miles in length. These lakes were the breeding 
places for wild game, such as geese, ducks, etc. The writer's father 
saw acres of the lake waters covered with these birds. Also the 
choicest kind of fish abounded there ; the speckled trout, pickerel, and 
salmon, and other varieties as well. 

The natural forests contained a goodly supply of wild fruits, nuts, 
etc., such as chestnuts, hickory nuts, black walnuts and butternuts. 
The many species of the oak tree were very productive of acorns, etc., 
thus supplying the wild game with their winter food. Winters were 
mild, with only a light snowfall in mid-winter, which was usually over 
soon and in a few hours the sun shone again, bright and warm. Deer 
came out of the forest and were very plentiful. The forests were rich 
with wild fruit; delicious grapes in great quantities, and wild plum 
trees that grew from 20 to 30 feet in height and bore excellent fruit of 
different flavors. 

Two Great Inventors. 

Professor Morse, who invented the telegraph, and the late Hon. 
Ezra Cornell, of Ithaca, New York, met each other the first time at 
Washington, D. C, and became great friends at once. Professor 
Morse was there seeking for a patent on his great invention, while 
Mr. Cornell was trying to get a patent on a plow which he had in- 
vented. 

During their stay at Washington Morse and Cornell united their 



EARLY DAY FARMING IN THE EAST 319 

forces and thus succeeded in building the first telegraph line in the 
United States, between New York City and the city of Philadelphia. 

Professor Morse's first idea was to dig a trench (making use of 
Cornell's plow), placing the telegraph line in this trench, under 
ground ; but, from the line not being encased properly, after giving 
this plan a fair trial, it proved to be an entire failure. Then Cornell 
said to Morse, '"If you can make it a success I want you to go ahead 
with it." 

Mr. Cornell then invented the glass insulators and placed the line 
above ground on poles, and this method worked so well that the tele- 
graph became the great success it has been ever since for the whole 
world. 

The late Hon. Ezra Cornell was well and very favorably known 
in Ithaca, New York. He was for two terms a member of the legis- 
lature of the State. His son, Hon. Alonzo B. Cornell, was at one time 
governor of the state. Ezra Cornell was, like Lincoln and the 
late Governor Johnson, of Minnesota, a self-made man, born a poor 
boy, and worked his way upward without any financial aid or means, 
except his own earnings. 

He was the founder of Cornell University. His first gift to this 
great University being $500,000 and 200 acres of land. His wish was 
to found an institution where any person could find instruction in any 
study. It has become one of the strongest and most flourishing uni- 
versities in the United States. Much more land has been added to 
the campus and every nation on the globe has had its representatives 
in this great university, which now has about 7,000 students or more 
in attendance each year. 

Ezra Cornell was also a great benefactor to the American farm- 
ers. He was a large farmer, always doing his farm work in a sys- 
tematic way and proved to be very successful. It was after his ac- 
quaintance with Morse that he became the owner of large tracts of 
very valuable land near Ithaca, and on part of this land Cornell Uni- 
versity now stands. A whole-souled man he was, also a liberal one, 
ever remembering the poor and needy. 

Mr. Cornell was an importer of thoroughbred short-horned cat- 
tle, and pure bred sheep, and also a great breeder of fine horses. After 
his death, the administrator, Frank E. Cornell, sold the entire herd of 
pure bred Duchess short-horned cattle, about sixty in number, to a 
Minnesota man, who was a breeder of short-horn cattle. It was a 
great advantage to the state of Minnesota to be able to secure so fine 
a herd of pure bred short-horn cattle. 

Thus the late Ezra Cornell blessed the world in many ways, and 
may his life ever live in the hearts and lives of those whom he came 
in contact with. 

The American Farmer of the 20th Century, 

George Washington well said, "Agriculture is the most useful 
and the most noble employment of man." The American farmer is 
the controlling element in our civilization. He makes secure the pres- 
ent and holds the destiny of the future. "The nation that feeds the 



320 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

world, rules the world." Then high, indeed, is the place of this nation 
and in the highest place stands the American farmer. 

The modern farmer of this century is receiving the benefit of the 
concentrated wisdom and talent of a great mass of labor of scientific 
men that spent thousands of their hard earned money, as well as many 
years, to invent all kinds of farm machinery. These inventions proved 
a great success and in most cases moved as perfectly as a time clock. 
American farming machinery is much better than that of foreign na- 
tions. The inventions are lighter in weight and better in all respects. 
The life of the farmer has often been called a life of drudgery, but this 
is not so at the present day. Take, for instance, the plow. First it 
was the wooden beam plow, then the sulky plow, and now it is the 
steam plow which is in use on our western prairies, turning five fur- 
rows at the same time. The united talents of great inventors have 
made farm labor more easy. The farmer can ride on these farm im- 
plements behind his noble steeds and therefore is a farm king. 



CHAPTER XXII 

Miscellaneous 

Miscellaneous Hints. 

A furnace-heated cellar is a poor place to keep most vegetables 
and fruits. By packing- in sand, which may be sprinkled with 
water occasionally, the drying- efifects of the air may be par- 
tially overcome, and the produce keeps better. 

Spring- is such a busy season, and there are so many different 
things which must be done at once on the country-place, that it is wise 
to do as much work in the fall of the year as possible, in the way of 
building, fencing, grading and getting ready generally. 

Taken in time, two parts of wood ashes (sifted), two parts salt, 
and one part sulphur, thoroughly mixed and put within reach of the 
colt or horse is very good for expelling worms. Do not mix the above 
ingredients in their feed where they will be compelled to eat them, 
however. Put the compound in a small box where the animal can lick 
at it at will. — Forest Henry. 

A little sugar added to the water used for basting the roast, espe- 
cially if it be veal, improves the flavor. 

A few bucketfuls of unslacked lime put in the cellar will help 
absorb moisture after heavy rains have left dampness or water on the 
cellar floors. 

If vessels containing butter are perfectly dry, and if the air is 
kept away from the butter while it is in the cellar, there is no danger 
of mould. Mould is a plant growth and will only grow in dampness 
and heat. 

Children's clothes can be made fireproof by adding to the last 
rinse water two ounces of pulverized alum. A prominent English 
chemist says that all children's dresses should be thus treated. 

The compost heap is a prime need for every garden. A good 
way is to dig a pit in some corner of the yard, where you can put ma- 
nure, leaves, house refuse of some sorts, grass litter, wood dirt, or 
any of the nitrogenous waste of a house and yard. If this is turned 
over now and then and wet with a hose, or occasionally watered with 
the suds from wash day, it will hasten decay. 

This is a novel way to get rid of bugs and cut-worms. Nearly 
all of these fly some time in their lives and mostly at night. After 
the weather gets warm and the millers begin to fly, for they are cut- 
worms in another stage of existence, set a tub on a barrel or box in 
the garden, place a lighted candle in the center and water" enough to 
come up about three inches. Let the candle burn all night and you 
will be surprised at the amount of bugs of all kinds that will be 
caught. — J. Cottar, Sumter, Minn. 



322 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

If you have to move any old wire take the wire from the posts 
and leave it lying on the ground. Then make a very large ring of the 
end of the wire, as large as a wagon tire, and fasten with a stout piece 
of twine or fine wire. Roll this ring along on the wire, tying it oc- 
casionally to hold it. Fasten well when all is rolled up. Unroll by 
fastening the end to something first. 

Every year people ask about "weed killers." The fighting agent 
in a weed killer is arsenic. The Rural New Yorker tells how to pre- 
pare the solution. Dissolve a tablespoonful of caustic soda in a gal- 
lon of warm water and then add all the white arsenic that will readily 
dissolve. This, sprayed or poured on the weeds will kill them, but 
be careful! It is a deadly poison. Keep children and animals away! 

Poison Ivy or Oak. — There are three generally effective remedies 
for poison ivy or mercury. One is to apply hot water to the poisoned 
surface. Another is peroxide of hydrogen. The third is to apply a 
solution of sugar of lead about 40 grains to a pound of water. Two 
other remedies that are more or less effective are baking soda and dry 
starch. 

The Farm Walks. — In planning the farm home, follow out the 
thought that we are making a picture, and all the colors should har- 
monize. In framing our picture we wish to make the better parts 
most prominent and cover and hide the ugly features with vines and 
shrubbery. 

The barns should be given the best of attention. When making 
a new barn the first work is to grade properly. The slope should 
grade away in all directions from the house, making drives from 
roadway to barn and house. Drives to the barn should be direct, 
with an ornamental hedge set along the barn drive, if desired. The 
drive to the house should diverge in easy and natural curves, never 
losing sight of the thought that we are striving first for utility and 
second for beauty. 

For a gravel drive, the driveway should be excavated to the 
depth of six to twelve inches, according to soil conditions, filling first 
with coarse gravel and then finish the last three or four inches with 
screened gravel. It should be pounded down close and with the cen- 
ter about two inches high at the highest, so that no water will stand 
on it. It should be built on the same principle as the city drive, with 
a covering of cement, and lightly creased about wash-boards, so as 
to prevent horses from slipping on them in icy weather. Noth- 
ing adds more to the appearance of a barn than a well made and 
well kept drive. The edges should always be kept straight and 
graded so that water will run off readily. 

In packing butter, wash the butter well and be sure to work out 
all the buttermilk. Salt to suit the taste and make into small round 
rolls. For each two gallons of water take a pint of granulated sugar, 
two teaspoonfuls of saltpeter and enough table salt to make the fluid 
hold up a fresh egg. Boil this as long as any scum arises and keep 
it skimmed ofif. When perfectly free from scum allow it to cool and 



MISCELLANEOUS 323 

place in a stone jar. Drop the rolls of butter into this as soon as they 
are made. Butter made in August has kept till late in the following 
spring. 

Greens. — Horseradish tops as greens can be had all summer by 
cutting off all the top about once a week. New tops will then grow 
quickly. Used as greens your guests will not leave any for the next 
meal if you season well with salt, pepper and butter. A nice piece of 
corned beef boiled with them is good, and this eaten with boiled po- 
tatoes and a corn-meal pudding, boiled with the meat and vegetables, 
makes a menu that old New York farmers greatly appreciate. The 
pudding is made with eggs, dried fruit, milk, etc., as usual with corn- 
meal puddings. But when it is ready for cooking, tie it very tightly in 
a linen bag, so tight that the juices of the vegetables cannot get in, and 
boil at the bottom of the vegetable and beef kettle. When thorough- 
ly done, untie and take off the sack, slice and serve with any good 
pudding sauce. 

The spring is the season for "greens." Spinach is, of course, the 
stand-by, for every one can raise it, and it is so easily prepared for 
the table. Some may not know that spinach is wonderfully improved 
by adding fresh mustard leaves. 

Dandelions are not only good, but medicinal. The only trouble 
with them, unless grown in a garden bed, is the work required to 
wash and shake out bits of grass. 

Milkweed tops are par excellence and very easy to gather and 
prepare. 

If you have cowslips down in the meadow, you are lucky. Did 
you ever use young nettles? Those who do tell us they are good. — 
The Farmer. 

Trees and Vines. — In planting shade trees around the farm house 
bear in mind that some of them will grow to a great size. Leave 
plenty of space around the home for the fullest entry of sunshine and 
light, as well as plenty of fresh air. 

In planting vines about the foundation of your house remove the 
soil to a depth of two feet, making a pocket two feet along the foun- 
dation and fifteen to eighteen inches across. Fill this with rich gar- 
den soil, to which has been added one-fifth of its bulk of very well- 
rotted manure. Into this plant the vines. If this is not done the 
vines will make a very poor showing like the majority of vines grow- 
ing against the foundation walls of dwellings. 

In using manure in tree and shrub planting, it is best to dig the 
holes six inches or a foot deeper than is necessary to accommodate 
the roots and the fertile soil directly beneath the roots. The thor- 
oughly rotted manure is then put into the holes and mixed with a 
little soil. This is then covered with enough earth to fill the holes to 
the proper depth for planting. Before the plants are set tread down 
the soil and manure as firmly as possible. The tree is then planted 
in rich soil, using no manure about the roots. After the roots have 
been covered, but before the holes are entirely filled, place a few 
shovelfuls of rotted manure over the soil in the holes and fill in with 



324 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

earth, firming the soil well during the whole operation. Mound the 
soil up well above the surrounding grade and then apply a heavy 
mulch of medium long manure, allowing it to extend out well over 
the roots on all sides of the newly set plants. 

Curing Pork Or Bacon, 

In curing pork for bacon and ham, for 100 lbs. of meat, use 7^ 
lbs. of good salt, 24 granulated sugar, and 4 saltpeter. Pulverize the 
saltpeter and mix all together. Rub the mixture on the pieces uni- 
formly, and pack loosely in a cask or large stone crock or crocks. Fill 
the vessel with water. Keep all the meat under water, and let it lay 
in brine from six to seven weeks. Cure the meat as soon as the ani- 
mal heat is out of it. 

This is a good recipe for curing bacon. You will have no trouble 
with flies getting to meat cured by this recipe. Just hang the hams 
up in the cellar after curing and do not cover them at all ; they get a 
little mouldy outside, but it is washed off in a few moments and the 
meat is so sweet and nice it is a pleasure to cut into it. The meat 
should be hung up or laid out (not piled up) for 48 hours after killing. 
For 200 lbs. of meat take 14 lbs. of salt, 5 lbs. granulated sugar, 6 
ounces saltpeter, 8 ounces powdered borax and 1 lb. black pepper. 
Mix all ingredients together. Brush each piece of meat all over, rind 
and all, with molasses. Put some in a saucer and with the hand rub 
it all over meat, then sprinkle on and rub well in some of the salt 
mixture, putting plenty around the bones. There is a bone top of the 
leg that must be removed down to the ball and socket joint, or the 
ham will taint, for there is always some blood there. — Farm, Stock 
& Home. 

Pickle for Pork. — Here is a recipe that has been tried for several 
years for family use and is guaranteed for the climate of the central 
states: For 100 pounds of pork take 10 pounds of salt, 2^ pounds 
of brown sugar, 2 ounces of pepper, 2 ounces of soda, 2 ounces of salt- 
peter, and water enough to make a brine that will float an egg. Pack 
meat in barrel . Boil and skim the brine of sediment. When cool, 
cover the meat with the brine, weight it down, and be sure it is all 
covered. Add the pepper after skimming. Let it remain in brine 4 
or 5 weeks, or until it is salt enough, smoke and let hang in an open 
dry place. Rub well with powdered borax and no insect will ever 
bother it. Leave the meat in the pickle until wanted and it never 
spoils. A large stone crock is better than a barrel for packing. 

Dried Beef. — The round is commonly used for dried beef, the in- 
side of the thigh being considered the choicest piece, as it is slightly 
more tender than the outside of the round. The round should be 
cut lengthwise of the grain of the meat in preparing for dried beef, 
so that the muscle fibers may be cut crosswise when the dried beef 
is sliced for table use. A tight jar or cask is necessary for curing. 
The process is as follows : To each 100 pounds of meat weigh out 5 
pounds of salt, 3 pounds of granulated sugar, and 2 ounces of salt- 
peter; mix thoroughly together. Rub the meat on all surfaces with 
a third of the mixture and pack it in the jar as tightly as possible. 



MISCELLANEOUS 325 

Allow it to remain three days, when it should be removed and rubbed 
again with another third of the mixture. In repacking put at the 
bottom the pieces that were on top the first time. Let stand for three 
days, when they should be removed and rubbed with the remaining 
third of the mixture and allowed to stand for three days more. The 
meat is then ready to be removed from the pickle. The liquid form- 
ing in the jars should not be removed, but the meat should be re- 
packed in the liquid each time. After being removed from the pickle 
the meat should be smoked and hung in a dry attic or near the 
kitchen fire, where the water will evaporate from it. It may be used 
at any time after smoking, although the longer it hangs in the dry 
atmosphere the drier it will get. The drier the climate, in general, 
the more easily meats can be dried. In arid regions good dried meat 
can be made by exposing it fresh to the air, with protection from flies. 

Smokehouse. 

These directions for building a smokehouse are taken from "The 
Farmer" : 

Take a salt or apple barrel (a larger barrel would be better), 
bore small holes in the bottom of the barrel for the string of each 
ham. I set mine in the garden, so there will be no hay or straw near 
in case of fire. Put a length of stove pipe in a trench so the pipe will 
be a little lower than the surface top of the ground, turn the barrel 
over one end of the pipe. At the other end of the pipe dig your fire- 
place, 12 or 15 inches square. Cover it with an old pan, piece of sheet 
iron or anything that will not burn or let the smoke and fire out. 
Now hang the meat in the barrel, straighten the barrel up, stake or 
weight it so dogs will not upset it, build your fire, put a weight on 
the cover so the wind will not blow it ofif (I live in a windy country), 
and your meat will smoke if you keep a little fire for a week or so. 
I take hams from the brine, put them in water till they are fresh 
enough to cook without freshing, take from the water, scrape and 
wipe dry and let lay for a day to dry. Put in the strings to hang them 
by, then rub this mixture dry around the bone and fleshy side of 
ham : One-third sugar and black papper, two-thirds salt. When they 
are smoked take down, wrap in paper, put them in these 50-lb. flour 
sacks just as they are after taking the flour out, pull a grain sack that 
has no holes in over the flour sack, hang in any dry place. We hang 
ours in the granary. Tie the openings in the sacks so flies and bugs 
cannot get into the sacks. 

For Dyspeptics. One hour before each meal drink a cup of 
water as hot as can be taken (sipped) conveniently; drink nothing at 
meals except milk, and nothing within one hour after meals, and a 
longer period, say three hours, is better, or until digestion is well 
under way ; then drink all the water you wish, but avoid tea and coflfee 
at any time; also rich pastries and fried or greasy foods^; study your 
own case and find out what agrees with you and avoid all that does 
not. 

One item of importance is, get hungry before eating. The object 
of the hot water before meals is to wash the stomach, and allow time 



326 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

for the juices to collect before they are needed again. The reason for 
not drinking with the meals is that the gastric juice is already too 
weak to digest the food, hence the fermentation, and any liquid only 
dilutes it and makes a bad matter worse. Milk being a solid as soon 
as it enters the stomach does not dilute, but strengthens and aids the 
organs in their work. If food is eaten slowly and thoroughly masti- 
cated, there will be no need of anything to "wash it down.". Live on 
very plain food, which is a great saving in labor, suffering and doctors' 
bills. 

A Minnesota Orchard. 

This orchard was cared for by the writer during the summer of 
1910, and is situated at the beautiful summer home of Senator J. M. 
Hackney, of St. Paul. This home is at Lake Josephine, on Hamline 
Avenue, four miles north of Como Park. 

The orchard has (200) two hundred or more trees, both apples 
and plums. I began the cultivation of these trees about the first 
of May. I used a fork-spade and worked the soil thoroughly to the 
depth of the tines of the spading fork, and the soil was worked from 
six to eight feet in diameter. I did this three times each month dur- 
ing the entire growing season, and put on a mulch from twelve to six- 
teen inches deep and from eight to ten feet in diameter. I continued 
cultivation until as late as September. 

This kind of cultivation retains the moisture for the setting of 
the buds in the fall, and consequently we find the next season that 
nearly all these trees were heavy laden with a very large and fine qual- 
ity of fruit, containing a very fine flavor, while fruit trees of the 
same varieties which were not cultivated in this same way failed to 
bear fruit the next season. The main cause of this failure was a lack 
of moisture at the time when the buds were to set for the next year's 
crop. 

All fruit orchards must be thoroughly cultivated and well man- 
ured yearly. Use coarse barnyard manure, put on a heavy dressing 
in the fall of the year, after the fruit is harvested, and in the spring 
cultivate it thoroughly into the soil. Also an excellent fertilizer for 
both orchards and gardens is occasionally a dressing of lime worked 
thoroughly into the soil around the trees and plants. 

Do not allow grains of any kind or garden vegetables or shrub- 
bery of any kind to be sown or planted in a young orchard, as this 
takes the richness from the soil, as well as the moisture, which the 
fruit trees require in order to bear a good crop each year. 

To destroy insects on fruit trees spray well just before they 
bloom and when the little apples or plums are about as large as a 
good sized pea or bean, spray thoroughly again, two or three times, 
as it may require, and you will not be troubled with insects. 

The fruit orchard should always be protected from severe 
weather, and especially the blasting east wind. Often when an or- 
chard was in full bloom a blasting east wind has destroyed the whole 
crop. 

A good protection is a hedge or a grove, which should be planted 



MISCELLANEOUS 327 

a distance of 75 to 100 feet from the orchard, so as to let a good cur- 
rent of air pass between the hedge or grove and the orchard. 

Buckthorn makes the best hedge, as it is hardy and will thrive in 
all kinds of weather and can stand a drouth better than any other 
kind of a hedge known. It must be from 10 to 12 feet high to protect 
the orchard with good results. 

A few walnut and butternut trees are excellent shade trees for 
the grove. They are easily grown and are good shade trees, and bear 
fruit in abundance in a Minnesota climate. 

1. The Planting. — The trees were set out about the middle of 
April. 1911. It contains 65 trees, mostly apple trees, some plum trees 
and some cherry trees. They all lived and made a sturdy growth dur- 
ing the summer months, and this photograph was taken of the or- 
chard October 20, 1911. 

2. Mulching and Care. — It was mulched well soon after planting, 
covering the entire surface of the orchard with straw about fourteen 
inches in depth, the deeper the mulch the less the evaporation. It 
has been clearly demonstrated that a large part of the water which 
is spread over the surface in summer irrigation passes from the soil 
into the atmosphere without serving any useful purpose. It has been 
tested that the proper mulching of the entire surface will retain all 
the moisture in the soil. Do not remove the straw mulching from the 
surface, but cultivate it thoroughly into the soil, and when this is done 
put a second coat of straw or barnyard manure mulch over the entire 
surface. 

A Western New York Thanksgiving Dinner at the Farm House. 
Twenty-five years ago all the accessories that go to make up the 
Thanksgiving dinner at a farm were produced on the same farms and 
those dinners perhaps cannot be duplicated in even the best of our 
hotels today. Surely, at least, one does not enjoy them in the same 
way. The following is the menu : 

Young Roast Pig and Dressing 

Roast Turkey Fried Chicken 

Homemade Dried Beef 

Mashed Potatoes Mashed Turnips 

Baked Squash 

Pickled Cucumbers Peaches Grapes Pears 

Light Cream Biscuits Maple Syrup 

Honey 

Mince Pie Pumpkin Pie 

Preserved Peaches or Quinces 

Fruit Cake Cookies 

Coiifee Tea 

Nuts — Assorted 

This menu not only shows a varied assortment but there was 

always such an abundance of every article served. 

One man said that if he took just one taste of everything served 
he would consider it a good meal. 



328 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 

Delicious cream and butter were served and used in preparing the 
above feast. The w^heat for the biscuits was taken to the grist mill 
and converted into flour. These biscuits, with honey and maple 
syrup, would make a meal in itself and led one farmer to admonish 
his son not to kill himself by eating them. The mashed potatoes were 
seasoned well with good butter, salt and pepper and the turnips were 
prepared in the same way. Meat was had in plenty to suit a variety 
of tastes; the roast turkey and roast pig (six weeks, and specially fed 
for this occasion) probably the ruling favorites, with chicken fried in 
butter coming close. 

The mince meat for pies was all from home products. It con- 
sisted of meat, apples, dried fruit and boiled cider. With this was 
served either apple or pumpkin pies. Many preserves and pickles 
were brought from the cellars and served as relishes with the meats. 
The pickles were all prepared in the best of pure, sweet apple cider, 
made on the place. 

Cookies in variety and fruit cake were indispensable and were 
taken with the tea or coflfee. 

If, when this was finished, anybody still felt hungry, nuts grown 
on the farm were eaten. Sometimes these were reserved until later. 
Butternuts, hickory, chestnuts, black walnuts and beech nuts formed 
the assortment. 



MAR m 1913 



